


Fountain of Youth

by Rexxy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2018-11-09 04:03:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rexxy/pseuds/Rexxy
Summary: "Excuse me, Ma'am?" Leonard asked and Christine resisted the urge to aww at the sheer adorable nature of little McCoy."Yes, Dear?""Last thing I remember I was with my mama back on the farm so... Am I dreamin'?""You're not dreaming, but we're trying to find out just what's happened.""Thank you." Spock said earnestly."There ya go!" Jim piped up, giving Spock a thumbs up. "It's not that hard talkin' once you get used to it!"Spock blushed and nodded in thanks as McCoy withdrew his hand and left him able to repress his emotions again."Well would you look at that." Christine said, looking at her scanner with almost disbelief. She then turned the findings to Uhura who nodded, knowing she'd been right from the first second she'd laid eyes on them. Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy and Mister Spock had, in fact, been de-aged.





	1. Don't shoot that

"Jim? JIM DON'T SHOOT THAT YOU DUMBASS-" was all the warning McCoy managed to get out before an errant beam from Jim's gun split the huge container and doused him, Jim and Spock and a purplish, sticky, and oddly peachy-tasting liquid. McCoy could feel it running down his throat as he struggled to close his mouth against the current that was suddenly forced on the trio and was left coughing and spluttering when the wave subsided to knee-height. He sucked in a deep breath and put his best angry face on, which was somewhat less effective covered in the thick substance, and glared at Jim. "I swear-"

"That's weird." Jim interrupted, nonplussed by McCoy's usual grumpiness, and then licked a bit of the liquid from his finger, making a face that showed he neither hated nor loved the taste. "It tastes just like the wine that diplomat gave us earlier, but less diluted."

"I would not suggest purposely ingesting it a second time until further analysis has been undertaken, Captain." Spock supplied, hands clasped behind his back and hair stuck to his forehead, a display McCoy found quite entertaining but chose not to comment on. _Mama said treat people the way you wanna be treated and- woah where did that come from?_ McCoy could quite confidently say he hadn't a thought like that since he was a kid, so what made that crawl out of the woodworks? Spock raised an eyebrow and McCoy scowled, forgetting that the damn Vulcan could see everything he was thinking.

"Leonard, the fact that I can read your thoughts should not come as a surprise. You consented-"

"Yeah I know what I did, Legolas."

Jim snorted, a loud and unflattering sound that McCoy himself found a small laugh escaping at. "That was funny!" Jim stated, coming over to pat the doctor's back to signify a job well done, and then kissed his cheek, because _wow he's so pretty. Hang on, what?_ Jim knew his boyfriend was quite the sight to behold, especially with that layer of scruff, but he'd never called him 'pretty' before. Maybe he should do that more often...

"Captain, Doctor," _getting formal are we? Gee, we're in the dog house now_ , Jim thought, and Spock shook his head in annoyance, "I do not understand-" Spock started but cut off as he felt a sudden dizzy spell take over him and fell forward onto McCoy, who stopped his laughter and held onto his mate as more and more of the Vulcans heavy weight settled on him, eventually toppling them both to the floor where McCoy banged his head, leaving them both unconscious with Jim quickly following suit after getting through to Scotty and telling him to get them back as quickly as possible.

\-----------------------

Uhura had to do a double take as soon as she set foot on the transporter pad and came face to face with three 5 year olds, all sprawled on the floor and wearing the uniforms Jim, Leonard and Spock had left with.

"What happened?" She asked, slowly approaching the children and gently checking them over for outward injuries.

"Not sure." Scotty answered, genuinely uncertain of what happened to the three kids on his transportation pad. "Cap'n gave me co-ordinates so I put them in and this is what turned up."

"Call nurse Chapel and get them to sickbay so we can make sure they're alright and find out who they are if possible." Uhura instructed and gently picked up the second tallest child, clearly Vulcan, from on top of the brunette child that was seemingly wearing mccoys too big uniform. She was just thinking about how much the Vulcan child looked like a really young Spock when the third child, blonde and the tallest, roused from his sleepy state, yawned, sat up and looked at Uhura with a far too alert gaze for a child that had just woken up. "Hello." She tried gently. "My name is Nyota. Can you tell me your name?"

The child stood up slowly, keeping eye contact with her before bolting out of the room as fast as his little legs would take him, only to be intercepted by nurse Chapel, who scooped him up under his arms and tried to keep him at arms length so his kicking legs couldn't get her. "Calm down, now, is that any way to treat someone whose trying to help you?" She admonished and the boy stopped and looked down, embarrassed, then shook his head. Chapel nodded and settled him on her hip as she neared the transporter room, and rounded the corner to see Nyota with a very much awake vulcan child looking at her curiosly while he sat behind another very small child that sat holding her hand with a smile.

"Hey there." Christine said, and was greeted by a frightened glare from the Vulcan and a bright smile from the smallest boy.

"Mornin'" He then turned his gaze to the scared Vulcan boy and laid a comforting hand on his arm and said in what he thought was a quiet, but really wasn't, voice, "mama says it's polite to say hello to new people and um... inroduce yourself."

"Hello." The Vulcan boy said almost too quietly to hear, still standing completely still. "I am Spock."

Christine exchanged a confused glance with Nyota who just shrugged as if to say worse and weirder has happened and Christine had to agree. This wouldn't be the first time the trio had come back different to how they left. The smallest clearly wasn't a fan of the silence and felt the need to fill it up, getting the attention back on himself by speaking, "I'm Leonard McCoy, but most people call me Len... Mama calls me Buttercup but no one else. I like Len the most. What's your name?" McCoy asked the blonde boy who suddenly became shy and buried his face into Christine's shoulder to muffle his answer.

"James Tibewius Kirk, but most people call me Jimmy."

Christine and Uhura slowly took in this information and met each other's eyes again. "Right, well, how about you come with me and we make sure you're all healthy?" The boys didn't look too impressed by that idea, and Christine rolled her eyes. "I can give you all a lollipop once we get to where we need to be, but I can't do that if we all stay here, can I?"

Jim considered this and then decided the best course of action was to go straight for the refined sugar and nodded enthusiastically. "I think we should go." He said to the other two boys, no longer shy at the prospect of sweet things. When the other boys looked blankly back at him, he wiggled free of Christine's grip and walked toward them, making Spock shift so that he was hiding behind McCoy but this time from Jim. It had also seemed that Jim's previous shyness had shifted to McCoy as he sat still, frowning at the outstretched hand Jim was offering him. "What's wrong?"

"You don't know what's out there." The small boy answered seriously. "It might be scary." The innocence in that statement made Christine want to just go over and hug her tiny little boss and tell him everything was going to be okay, but she refrained, deciding to see how this would play out.

"I'll protect you. I promise." Jim said, waving his hand to indicate that McCoy should take it.

"Why?" McCoy eyed him curiously.

"Because the heroes always help the ah.. Damsels in distress!" Jim stated proudly, clearly happy with himself for being able to remember that.

"Aren't they girls?"

Jim huffed. "Fine. You stay here and I'll go and get a lollipop." In response, McCoy crossed his arms and shrugged. Jim threw his arms in the air in frustration. "Come on, Len! You can hold my hand and I won't let anybody hurt you."

It seemed that Jim's confidence in himself was so strong that it persuaded McCoy to stand, with Spock following suit and clinging to Leonard's shirt, thought the smaller boy either didn't notice or didn't mind. Jim then held onto Christine's hand and the three boys, and Uhura, followed her through the hallways to sickbay, where they gained a multitude of strange looks, to which they reacted differently. Jim tried to greet every single person they went past with enthusiasm and a wave, McCoy smiled politely and Spock clung to McCoy tighter. When Leonard noticed that, he opened his hand to Spock who saw how Jim was holding the other boys hand and copied, then was overcome with an unusually prominent excitement and intrigue with an undercurrent of caution that belonged to McCoy. "Jim'll protect me, and I'll protect you, ok?" Spock nodded and McCoy chuckled. "You don't say much do ya? That's alright. If you was like everybody else then you'd be no fun!"

Spock smiled a little at that, too enveloped in McCoy's feelings to able to repress his own all that well. "My mother, too, believes I am unusual for a child of my age."

"I don't think you're unusual." Jim said. "Not in the bad way, anyhow. You look one of those pors- you know those um... Those clay dolls, the real pale ones." Spock felt his cheeks go a little green at what he thought was a taunt.

"He wasn't name calling you, Spock!" Leonard supplied happily. "Was just sayin' that you're prettier than other people. Like dolls are! They're made to be pretty and other girls try to look like 'em but you already do, understand?"

"I think so." Spock agreed, and Uhura smiled at the little show of emotion in the young Vulcan. He'd probably never met such an emotional human kid in his actual childhood, so was probably experiencing such strong, confusing emotions for the first time.

When the boys finally made it to medbay, Christine sat them up on a bio bed, McCoy in the middle, and gave them a lollipop each while she ran a scanner over them. "Excuse me, Ma'am?" Leonard asked and Christine resisted the urge to aww at the sheer adorable nature of little McCoy.

"Yes, Dear?"

"Last thing I remember I was with my mama back on the farm so... Am I dreamin'?"

"You're not dreaming, but we're trying to find out just what's happened."

"Thank you." Spock said earnestly.

"There ya go!" Jim piped up, giving Spock a thumbs up. "It's not that hard talkin' once you get used to it!"

Spock blushed and nodded in thanks as McCoy withdrew his hand and left him able to repress his emotions again.

"Well would you look at that." Christine said, looking at her scanner with almost disbelief. She then turned the findings to Uhura who nodded, knowing she'd been right from the first second she'd laid eyes on them. Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy and Mister Spock had, in fact, been de-aged. The only thing to do now was to find out how to fix it...


	2. Getting lost (and found)

After getting the boys some clothes that McCoy had kept in his office in case there were ever children aboard for any reason (damn irresponsible ensigns and whatnot), Nyota decided, as she helped Jim to get his arm through the small borrowed shirt, that the best course of action was to find out what, exactly, had happened on that planet.

 

“This shirt is making me itchy.” Jim complained, scratching at the design of small dinosaurs on the front. He was also wearing little cargo shorts, but he seemed perfectly fine with those.

 

“You can switch with me, if you want?” Leonard offered, at peace with his short-sleeved, pink shirt with a unicorn on the front and jean shorts with colourful flowers on the left side.

 

“No way, that’s a girls shirt!”

 

Leonard huffed and stormed to where Spock was sat on the other side of the room wearing a thin, chequered shirt over a white top that had a small solar system on it, and a pair of normal blue jeans. He looked up when Leonard came over to him and gave the boy a curious look when he seated himself beside him rather forcefully. “Is something wrong, Leonard?”

 

“Jim’s being mean. His shirt is scratchy so I said he could have mine and he called it girly.”

 

“That doesn’t make sense.” Spock stated. “How can an item of clothing that a boy is wearing be more girly than another item of clothing a boy is wearing?”

 

McCoy shrugged. “So you don’t think I look stupid then?”

 

“Not at all. I like the exotic animal on your clothes, and the flower pattern. Now we both look like those dolls, yes?” Spock remembered Leonard telling him that being called doll-like was a compliment and figured it would make Leonard happy to believe he was doll-like.

 

“You callin’ me pretty, Spock?” The Vulcan boy felt heat rising to his cheeks and nodded. “Well, thanks!” McCoy grinned and Spock smiled in response, his own happiness heightened by that of the other boy. “We don’t even need Jim! He can sit in his scratchy shirt while me an’ you sit pretty.”

 

Jim overheard this and stormed over to the other two boys. “That’s not nice!” He said, pouting. “I never said you wasn’t pretty. I just said the shirt was girly, but that’s okay, if you like girly things.” He scuffed his toe against the floor. “It’s a bit big for you, but that’s okay too. I like you no matter what you wear. I’m sorry.”

 

“Its alright, Jimmy!” Leonard got up and hugged Jim enthusiastically, then turned and held his hand out to Spock, who took it and was dragged into the hug. When he didn’t reciprocate, unfamiliar with this kind of touching between two unknown people, McCoy hugged him from behind and Jim hugged him from the front, and he smiled, feeling accepted, unlike when he was with other Vulcan children. None of them noticed Nyota taking a sneaky picture for later.

 

“Come on!” Jim pulled away first, and ran to the door, the other two following quickly. “We should go on an adventure!”

 

“Not so quickly.” Nyota cut in, amused at the boys. “Can’t have three little men running around a star ship now, can I?”

 

“Star ship?” Jim’s eyes lit up, and he made grabby motions at Uhura, who picked him up. “Can we see the big room at the front? Pretty please? Mommy says that’s the best bit, because you can see the stars and the planets and sit on the big chair!” Jim explained animatedly, using his hands to convey the sheer size of said chair. Uhura laughed at her Captain’s dramatics and looked down to see if the other two boys agreed, only to find Spock directing a concerned and fearful look her way as McCoy squeezed his hand to an almost painful degree.

 

“Oh, Len, you don’t need to be afraid. Nothing will happen to you here.” She assured him, but he remained absolutely unmoving as his breathing rate picked up as he looked between her and Spock, then settled his frightened gaze on the Vulcan boy.

 

“Star ships… They’re in space aren’t they?” Spock nodded and Leonard let go of him so that he could grab his unicorn shirt and cling to the fabric tightly, nearly tearing it. “Daddy said space is dangerous because people die of diseases from other planets because we’re not- we’re not-“ Leonard had to break his quick babbling to try and figure out the word, which only made him more frustrated, “-immune!” He ended up shouting, and then started pacing nervously. Nyota put down Jim and reached for Leonard to try and calm him down but the little doctor was having none of it and ran from her quarters with as much effort as Jim had attempted to when they’d first woken up. He’d almost tripped in his haste but managed to evade her attempt at stopping him and ran down the empty corridor until he reached a lift.

 

 _This can’t be real_ , he thought, _Mama wouldn’t leave me in space all by myself_. He pushed a few of the buttons on the bottom of the panel, as they were all he could reach, and gasped when the doors shut quicker than he’d anticipated. The small space was doing nothing for his nervousness either, and he pushed at the doors until he fell out into a lower deck and a hallway swarming with crewmembers. He pushed past people the best he could, ignoring the stares he was getting, and ended up climbing onto some stacked boxes to get a vantage point, where he could see far too may people bustling around trying to do their jobs. He frantically looked for a way out and saw that there was an open vent behind him, giving off a cool breeze, and he figured it would be better to be in there than to get squashed by everyone moving around him. He lifted himself carefully inside and crawled through the metal tunnels until there was very little noise from the direction he’d come from.

 

In his newly found silence he let himself be scared again, in the cold, dark tunnel. _Actions have consequences, Leonard_ rang through his head and he could picture his Mama’s disappointed scowl, _just wait ‘til your Daddy finds out._ God, no. He felt his tears streaming down his face. He didn’t want to disappoint the stern man that came home every night cradling a bottle of amber liquid that tasted vile (he’d only tried it once, when Daddy wasn’t looking, and promptly spat it all over the carpet). He didn’t want to disappoint anyone, he just waned to hide and pretend he wasn’t in a never-ending darkness. _If we were meant to fly, God would have given us wings, Lenny,_ his Mama would say. He hunched over and buried his face into his knees and sobbed, believing he was well and truly lost. Nobody would find him down here and-

 

“Hello?” A very cautious voice echoed around the walls and Leonard covered his mouth with his hand, afraid of being told off. “Is someone in there? It’s not very safe in the vents they can heat up real quickly.” McCoy couldn’t place an accent but decided that the voice was kind sounding and felt like he could trust it.

 

“I’m lost.” He admitted. “I ran from the nice lady because she said we was in space. Can you help me?” He asked timidly.

 

“Aye. Just follow the sound of my voice.” McCoy did as he was told and the voice kept talking to help him along, sometimes making silly jokes that made him giggle until he eventually reached another opening and peered out to find a man in a red shirt smiling up at him. “Well, nice to put a face to a voice, eh? I’m Scotty. Would you like me to help you down?”

 

McCoy nodded and Scotty picked him up out of the vent and kept hold of him, which Leonard was grateful for. Life was much easier at this height. “I’m sorry for causin’ trouble.” He admitted, embarrassed. “It’s just that space is scary, and I get real frightened sometimes.”

 

“Everybody gets frightened sometimes, especially wee bairns like yourself, so don’t you worry about it, alright? How about I help you find the lieutenant and your friends, hm?”

 

“I’d like that.” He agreed, and then remembered his manners. “Ah, please.” He smiled what his mama called his ‘winning smile’ and Scotty’s heart just about melted.

 

Scotty commed Uhura, who sounded stressed beyond belief, and told her that he had McCoy and that he was alright and they were heading for her. “Can we meet in the big room? Jimmy wanted to go to the big room and I think I’ll be alright now. As long as you don’t drop me.” Leonard said in all seriousness and Scotty nodded, relaying the information on to Uhura.

 

As they walked, McCoy forgot all together just how scared he’d been and prattled on about anything and everything he could think of from, ‘your accent reminds me of an ad I saw once for cheese,’ to ‘if I move my arm just like this you can hear it clickin’ just right.’ Scotty had material to tease the doctor with for years, when he was back to normal, but for now couldn’t resist making the little boy laugh until his cheeks turned red and his eyes watered because it was perhaps the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

 

When they reached the bridge, Leonard noticed Spock and Jim immediately and motioned to be put down, too excited to use his words. Spock noticed him first and was enveloped very quickly in an unusually tight hug, but he reciprocated anyway, smiling when Jim came up and joined.

 

“I missed you, Len.” Jim accused. “So did Spock, he even cried because he thought you was in a lot of danger.”

 

“May I point out that you also cried, Jim. For longer than I, and louder.”

 

“You sayin’ you missed me less, Spock?” Leonard asked, hurt.

 

“Of course not. I control feelings better than humans, but I missed you just as much.” He took Leonard’s hand and felt the acceptance of his words, as well as joy and relief to be back with the other two boys.

 

Uhura stepped forward and was about to berate the smallest boy when Jim stood in her path and pointed a finger at McCoy. “Don’t you ever do that to us again, Lenny! Me and Spock were very scared that you were going to get lost or hurt! I told you that if you stay with me, I’ll protect you, but I cant do that if you run away, can I?” Leonard shook his head, and Jim nodded, proud of himself, before taking McCoy’s hand and pulling him over to the Captain’s chair, subsequently bringing Spock with him too. “Miss ‘Hura?” Jim asked politely. “Can you help us onto the chair?”

 

“Sure can, Captain.” Jim giggled, delighted, as Uhura lifted first him, then McCoy, then Spock onto to the chair, where they all fit comfortably. Jim felt McCoy squeeze his hand tighter as they looked out at the stars and planets around them.

 

“I’m playing Captain and Spock was playing second in command.” He said loudly, garnering Leonard’s attention, and feeling the grip on his hand loosen a little.

 

“First Officer.” Spock corrected, and Jim rolled his eyes.

 

“Fine, First Officer. What do you want to be?”

 

“Hmm… I wanna be an engineer! Just like Scotty!” The admission made Scotty’s heart do a little flip and he felt his face go warm. That was one of the nicest things he’d ever heard spoken on the enterprise and especially from McCoy.

 

“Alright.” Jim agreed. “Mr Sulu!” He shouted, apparently already acquainted with the bridge crew after the few minutes he’d spent up there. “Where are we going?”

 

“Anywhere you want, Sir.”

 

“He called you sir.” McCoy giggled.

 

“I know.” Replied Jim excitedly. “I thought they were gonna be all serious-like but they’re actually alright.”

 

“Its not really too bad I guess.” McCoy shrugged. “What do you think, Spock?”

 

Both boys turned to the Vulcan and found him pressing buttons on the arm of the chair, and with a quick glance at Uhura saw that they were being scrutinised carefully so the buttons must be mostly useless, or she’d have pried them away. A mother hen if Jim ever saw one. He looked back to McCoy and sat down. “What do engineers do, anyhow?”

 

“They fix things. Machinery and stuff.”

 

“But you don’t even like star ships! How are you gonna be an engineer?”

 

“Well, what else can I do?”

 

“Umm… Doctors fix things.”

 

“Oh. I’ll be a Doctor then.”

 

“Cool.” They sat quietly for a few moments until Jim huffed. “I’m bored! Being Captain is stupid. Do you have any games, Miss Uhura?”

 

“I’m afraid not, Jim. I can get you some pens and paper, if you want to draw, from the Doctor’s office. He prefers traditional methods, you see.”

 

“Awesome! Come on, you two! We can go play with messy stuff!” Jim then jumped from the chair and ran to Uhura, who picked him up and waited for the other boys.

 

Spock got off first, rather easily, and then looked at Leonard. “Would you like some help?” The brunette nodded and Spock put his arms out so that he could slowly lift McCoy down with all the strength he had. Neither were aware of Chekov recording the cute display behind them.

 

“Okay, are you all going to behave? No running off?” She pointedly gave Leonard a knowing look, which he avoided by looking at the floor in shame when he nodded. His look of distress made Spock concerned and he took the smaller boys hand, gently giving McCoy some of his calmness. The other boy blushed and smiled at Spock and they trailed off together behind Uhura, who was rolling her eyes at a jealous looking Jim.

 

The blonde decided that jealousy was not a good use of his time however and shifted to something else. “Why are we here? I don’t remember coming here.”

 

“Well, that’s what were trying to figure out. So far, Mr Sulu thinks purple plant juice has something to do with it, but there’s not much to go on yet.”

 

“Oh.” Jim nodded, satisfied with the short and sweet answer, and spent the rest of the small walk to McCoy’s office quietly watching the two boys behind them talk about why they thought Spock had pointy ears. When they got there, she put Jim down to get their drawing supplies and seated them at the desk, McCoy and kirk in Leonard’s old desk chair and Spock on a different chair on the opposite side to them.

 

While they were nicely distracted, she quickly sought Christine outside the office. “What have we got so far?”

 

“Well, it looks like they’ve all ingested some sort of anti-ageing plant crap, if you want technical you’ll have to ask Sulu, but it’s been catalogued before. It’ll wear off at different points, depending on how much is in their system and looking at the scans it looks like McCoy has the most in him, and the he’s the smallest so that will take a while, and Jim the second most, but Vulcan biology seems to break down the chemicals a lot slower, meaning Spock will probably be a kid for a little while longer than Jim, but Leonard, we don’t know yet. It could last another few days, a week, a month, it really depends on how their bodies break it down.”

 

“Thank you, Christine.”

 

“Just doing my job, Nyota.” She smiled pleasantly. “How are they doing, anyway?”

 

“Well the doctor had a little freak out over space but I think he’s doing fine now. He always was better off when those two were around. And as for said other two they’re fine. When McCoy was gone they mainly cried, and as heart-breaking as it was at the time, they’re totally fine now.”

 

“Yeah that’s kids for you.” Christine laughed. “You’d be a great mother, Nyota.”

 

“Well lets just hope I can keep it up until they’re back to normal. I better be getting back to them now anyway, knowing Jim he’ll be up to something. I’ll speak to you later?” Christine nodded and walked away, chuckling as she heard Uhura shout from the office, _“Jim, for God’s sake get that thing out of your nose!”_

Christine just hoped, for Uhura’s mental state, that it would wear off soon…


	3. Toys

Once Uhura had successfully extracted the pen McCoy had gleefully shoved up Jim’s left nostril, she was called onto the bridge to help with communications with the ambassador that had supposedly first served the three boys the purple drink. She had no choice but to leave the boys in the care of Scotty, because McCoy refused to be left with anyone he was not familiar with on the ‘death ship’. This, of course, was not all that great according to Jim.

“What’s so great about Scotty anyways?” Jim asked Spock resentfully and quiet as he could as they sat playing with Keenser, who shrugged at Jim’s statement. Spock followed Jim’s line of sight to look at Scotty sitting at the desk in the chair Jim and McCoy had been sharing with Leonard on his lap, watching him fiddle around with a data padd.

“I believe Leonard is grateful to his rescuer. I do not think, however, that he is gaining the best experience by not playing with us.”

“He’s got our Lenny under some kind of mind control, Spock! Can’t you see it?”

In response, Spock snuck another glance and raised an eyebrow at Jim. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

“Len adores him like a stupid puppy. He should be over here and playing with us. I don’t see why Scotty should get to have him all to himself!”

Spock nodded in understanding. “You are jealous.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!” Spock argued back, then caught himself in his childish behaviour and mentally admonished it. He’d been spending too much time around these other children. “Mr Scott? When will we be going home?" 

Scotty looked up at Spock and shrugged. “I don’t know, wee man, but I know that until you do you’ll be safe and looked after, I can promise you that.” The earnest tone with which he delivered the statement had Spock believing him immediately. Spock couldn’t help but find the man trustworthy, because of the honesty he possessed. The Vulcan boy also admired that Scotty didn’t skirt around the truth, or talk down to him, as most adults did. He was beginning to understand McCoy’s admiration of the man.

“I do not believe Mr Scott is capable of forcing telepathic slavery on Leonard’s mind.” Spock told Jim, in a tone that suggested he would argue if necessary.

“Fine! If you like Scotty so much then why don’t you just marry him!” He shouted at Spock and got up, but quickly discovered that he had nowhere to go, then crossed his arms and sat back down, facing the wall.

“Jim-“ McCoy started, but Kirk cut him off.

“I’m not talking to you either! You’re brainwashed! I want Uhura back.” He sighed dramatically and purposely ignored the attempts of the other boys to talk to him until they resorted to other tactics.

“Spock?” Leonard asked, and had the boy’s attention immediately. “Do you want to come up here and sit with me and Scotty? He says we can take apart the padd and I figured you liked computers an’ stuff. Wanna play?”

“I would be ah..” He furrowed his brows as he dug around for the right word in his head, then brightened when it popped up, “amenable.” Spock then walked to Scotty and took residence on the engineer’s other knee. “Mr Scott, would it be alright if I attempted to put it back together again, after Leonard takes it apart.”

“Be my guest. If it keeps you busy, my job here is done. Jimmy boy? Why don’t you come up and help Len take it apart? It’s quite a dangerous job, breaking things, but delicate. It’s like a surgery. With Len’s doctor hands and your experience at breaking things, you’ll have it apart in no time!" 

Jim turned around reluctantly and walked over to the desk silently, as quiet as the other boys watched him, and sat opposite them. The tension between them soon melted away as McCoy and Kirk worked together to pull apart the mechanics inside the padd and Spock watched carefully, remembering where every part went and what purpose it served. When the former two had finished their job, Kirk jumped down from his chair, uninterested in mechanics. He _did_ , however, like to build things sometimes. Colourful things. “Mr Scott, do you have any blocks? You know the ones with the pointy things that stick together?”

“Building blocks, you mean? Like… Lego?” Scotty asked.

“Sure.” Kirk shrugged. Scotty looked around the office for a second, his eyes landing on the cupboard Uhura had gotten their clothes from. He stood up, taking McCoy with him and balancing him on his hip while Spock replaced him in the chair, still sticking parts together. He pulled on the handle but found it locked and put McCoy down so he could inspect the lock closer.

“Jim? Could you hand me the small, flat tool and the little hook from the desk?” Scotty asked, and Jim eagerly delivered. “Do not tell Uhura about this, understand?” Jim nodded, glad to be part of a secret. It made him feel like a spy or something equally as cool. Maybe that’s what he could be next. _Agent Jim Kirk, codename: Captain Awesome!_ He watched, enraptured, along with the other boys, as Scotty picked the lock and gently opened the door, pulling out a cardboard box labelled ‘Joanna - Toys’. It was the collection of toys and games that McCoy had kept on-board as reminders of his little girl when he hadn’t seen her in a while. Scotty had seen McCoy take it out a little while back when a diplomat came aboard with his children and McCoy was left to look after them, being the only one the children trusted. It seemed that no matter the species, Leonard always made a good father figure… Even if that meant lending his spare toys to little Jimmy Kirk.

The building blocks McCoy had were multi-coloured and plastic, and Scotty laughed at how old-fashioned it was as he set the box on the ground and watched Jim and Len dig around for stuff to play with. Jim pulled out all of the building blocks he could find while Leonard seemed to be playing with a stretchy bit of fluffy fabric, which Scotty realised was a small bear costume.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” McCoy asked, still not sure as to how he was supposed to even hold the garment. “The hair is getting everywhere!” He complained. “It is soft though.”

Scotty was amused at the little doctor rambling to himself, which he still did as a fully-grown man, and then looked back over at Spock, who had gone back to re-assembling the data padd. Looking after kids wasn’t so hard. He honestly couldn’t see what Uhura was complaining about. 

“Can we have juice?” Kirk interrupted his thoughts.

 _“Please.”_ McCoy stressed, trying to imprint his manners onto Jim, while he abandoned the costume in favour of an antique-looking toy ambulance.

“Sure thing.” Scotty said, and left to go and get something for the boys from the machine just outside McCoy’s office. He was thankful that in the few seconds it took to retrieve the juice boxes, the most interesting thing that happened in the office was Spock completing his task and joining Jim with the building blocks on the floor. He gave the boys their drinks and sat back at the desk, inspecting Spock’s handiwork with an impressed expression that Spock discreetly smiled at, pleased with himself. The moment was quickly spoiled, however, when McCoy let out a shriek and a shout.

“Darn it, Jimmy! You got your juice all over me!” Scotty looked up at the commotion and barely stopped himself from chuckling at the red-faced and fuming McCoy with his clothes stained orange and his messy hair stuck to his head as he glared the best he could at Jim, who looked less than apologetic.

“It was an accident.” Jim said, shrugging.

“Actions have consa- consaquen- Actions have- you know!” McCoy stamped his foot on the floor in his frustration. 

“Consequences?” Spock offered.

“Yes!” McCoy nodded gratefully at Spock’s input.

“Fine, I’m sorry.” Jim said for the second time that day, still paying more attention to his building than to Leonard, at least until he heard a sniffle. Scotty and Spock heard the small sound too, and Scotty felt his heart tear in two at the sight of Leonard pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes as his little body shook with his tears. He’d heard McCoy sniffle a few times in the vent earlier, but never could have imagined how devastating it was to see the boy really upset and crying. He immediately got up and scooped Leonard into his left arm, picking up the small bear costume with his free hand, and took him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up and into the dry clothes. When they came out, Leonard’s eyes were red and puffy but he was no longer crying, and was instead playing with the mittens covering his hands.

When Scotty put him back down on the floor and watched his little bear tail waggle over to plonk himself down next to Spock, he saw Jim fiddling nervously with the toy ambulance McCoy had been playing with. “Len?” Jim asked cautiously, and the smaller boy simply crossed his arms and pointedly ignored the blonde, to which Jim sighed and crawled until he could sit next to McCoy and then put his arm around him in a hug. “I didn’t mean to make you cry, it was really just an accident. I just dropped it… I’m sorry I ruined your unicorn shirt.” He then stopped hugging Leonard and put the toy ambulance down in front of him, where he and Spock had built a little collection of streets for him to drive it around out of the building blocks.

Leonard accepted the peace offering gratefully and pulled Jim back into a hug, saying, “I forgive you, Jimmy,” before taking off the mitten in his right hand to get a grip of his ambulance, and continuing to play with his toy. “Can we play now? I still want to be a Doctor I think.”

“Ooh I want to be a spy this time!” Jim told the other two. “What do you want to be, Spock?”

“I do not think I want to play this game.”

“You sure? It’s lots of fun.” Jim assured him.

“No, thank you. I think I would prefer to engage in a Vulcan writing exercise. I believe you both have influenced me in a way that would upset father’s expectations. Please, have fun without me.”

“Maybe your Daddy just has the wrong idea… My Mama says that friends are just as important as family, because they’s the ones you choose to love!” Leonard said proudly, grinning at Spock in a way that made the other boy almost want to smile back as he put his little mitten-covered left hand over his heart to emphasise his point. 

“You love me, Leonard?” Spock asked, green blush settling on his pale skin. 

“I guess so.” The small boy answered, and Spock felt something tingling in his chest. Leonard took his hand to give him a toy, and Spock was suddenly filled with the childish admiration and love McCoy held for Spock. The small brunette was perhaps the most emotional being Spock had ever met, and it was strange to feel so much, so intensely all at once.

“Hey, I love you too!” Jim added, taking Spock’s other hand to give him a little action figure, and it proved too much for Spock, to have so many feelings rushing through him from McCoy and Kirk at the same time. He burst into tears, unable to control himself, and Scotty looked over at them alarmed, finding the equally shocked faces of McCoy and Kirk looking between him and Spock. Scotty felt just as bad seeing Spock upset as he did McCoy, especially because he was normally so calm and collected, even as a child. He walked over to the boys and asked what had happened, to which the other boys shrugged and looked helplessly at Scotty while Spock continued to sob, now under an onslaught of concern and love and _I hope he’s okay._

It was then that Uhura had finally found herself back to the troublesome trio and opened the door to the office to that scene. Spock heard it, looked up, and immediately ran for the exit. The combined factors of his speed and Uhura’s shock at seeing the Vulcan so emotional allowed him to slip by her and run from the medbay. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he needed to get away from all of those overwhelming emotions before he embarrassed himself further…


	4. Fitting in

As soon as Spock heard footsteps gaining on him, he ran into the first room he got to and shut the door, then ran to the illuminated bathroom and sat in the bathtub, hugging his knees, until he was sure the threat of capture was gone. He had been sat for around 15 minutes before he assumed the silence to be a sign that he was not going to be found in this room.

Cautiously, he stepped into the main room, a rather large and dark place, equipped with a large couch and a whole lot of technology he wanted to play with but didn’t want to get in trouble for breaking. Wisely, he chose to climb onto the quite high up couch. _Leonard would find it difficult to get up here_ , he thought, _and Jim would like the bounciness._ He resolved to show them the couch if he next had an opportunity. Once he was up, he sat facing forward with his legs too short to bend over the side when his back hit the furthest cushion, and realised the room was poorly lit because the light source was currently the large windows spread out on the wall he was facing, showing the deep expanse of space the ship was currently in. _Perhaps Leonard would be better off staying on the floor._ Looking out at the stars and the swirling colours of far off galaxies, Spock felt comforted. He was often told he didn’t belong on Vulcan with the pure-blooded children, and then that he would be no better off with the human children on Earth, but here, he belonged. Here, he was far away from illogical prejudice and cruelty, and had friends. _Friends._ The concept was new for him, and difficult to grasp, but he had found himself liking the two human boys that had been thrown onto this star ship with him, despite their tendancy to go against what they were told.

Choosing to distract his thought from the fact he was also disobeying rules, he looked for a source of electricity for lights, and came to the conclusion that they must be voice activated. “Computer. Lights to 30%.” Spock demanded quietly, afraid that he was going to be wrong and foolish, but the room did, in fact, light up. The first thing the boy noticed in the new found light was a picture frame on a small table next to where he was sitting. His curiosity made him reach over and pick it up so he could see the photograph inside.

The picture showed a Vulcan, much like himself, looking very irritated into the camera as he held a shorter, brunette human man that was giggling into his collarbone as he hugged the Vulcan, clearly intoxicated. The Vulcan clearly didn’t care all too much, Spock decided upon further inspection of the unusual photo, because he had one hand curled into the doctor’s hair, as if he had been caressing it to try to comfort the man. Spock knew that this was unusual, because he had been taught that when Vulcans ah... matured… touching with hands was often inappropriate for non-intimate relationships. For Vulcan children it was no issue, but for a Vulcan of the age of the one in the photograph, it would not be normal unless the two men were involved romantically, which Spock had not seen on his home planet. There had been some rare mated pairs that were of the same gender but never two males of different species. Spock knew that if he ever dared to have a relationship like that, his father would be even more displeased than he already was with Spock for only being half Vulcan.

He put the frame down after a moment more of staring and noticed that there were two more. He opted to pick up the smaller one first, which was a polaroid picture of the intoxicated man from before but this time he was sober, and laid in bed asleep on his back with half of his body illuminated by light which shined on the words printed on the big, grey hoodie he was wearing: _Property of Cadet James T. Kirk._ Spock was not sure whether or not this was referring to the jumper or the man wearing it, but the hand slung over the man’s waist under the words told him it was likely the latter. The man clinging to the previously intoxicated man was a shirtless blonde that was kissing the other’s stubbled cheek, and was likely numbing his bed-partner’s arm by laying on it. _James Kirk_ , Spock wondered, _how coincidental._ On the bottom of the photograph was a small scribbled ‘ _SLEEPYBONES! HAHA!’_ followed by, in a different colour, ‘this is why we can’t be friends.’ Spock wondered about the last photograph and wondered if the drunk was perhaps a man of loose morals. He then put that down and picked up the last photo, which showed all three of the men together. The Vulcan was in the middle, the blonde’s arm wrapped around his waist and vice versa, and the brunette on his other side had one arm over his shoulders while he was in clear conversation with a man Spock recognised as Scotty, and was mid-laugh when the photograph was taken. The blonde was giving a devilish grin to the camera, his blue eyes full of amusement. The Vulcan also looked, Spock was surprised to see, visibly happy, with a green tinge in his cheeks and the hint of a smile on his mouth as he, too, looked at the camera for the photo.

He put the frame back a couple of minutes later, feeling strange at this new surge of information. Perhaps he had never known acceptance now, but it was possible in the future. He may, one day, be part of group that loves him as these men love this Vulcan, and perhaps when he finds them, he wont feel so alone anymore. He had to seek out this Vulcan, and ask just how he managed it, and take advise.

With that thought in mind he hopped off the couch and headed for the door he came through, then walked out calmly, and headed towards where he had escaped from, only to run directly into a nurse. The same nurse from earlier. What had been her name?

“Christine?” He tried quietly, and the woman frowned at him. He put his head down, ashamed at being wrong, and nodded, then turned, only to be stopped by a soft hand on his shoulder turning him around. The nurse kneeled down to his height, then picked him up under his arms and held him as Jim had been held by Uhura earlier, but the nurse was careful not to make any skin contact, for which he was grateful. Being held was not as unpleasant as he had been lead to believe by his father. It was actually rather comforting, and made him feel safe.

“You’ve been gone for nearly 45 minutes, Spock. Where have you been?” She asked calmly, trying not to overwhelm the boy again.

“I was hiding in a very large room with a wall of windows.” He replied, unsure what to actually call the room. “There were pictures of a Vulcan, like myself, with two other men. Could I meet them?” He asked, giving her what his mother referred to as ‘puppy dog eyes’.

“Don’t you be looking at me like that, Mr Spock. I’m afraid that Vulcan is… indisposed at the moment. On an away mission, and will be for some time.” Spock looked disappointed, and Christine sighed. “But I’ll make sure to tell him you’re here and waiting.”

“Do you know him personally?”

“Personally? No, but I do hear a lot about him from my boss. He says that he acts all tough, but he’s really just a big softie.”

“Softie?”

“Softie.” Christine nodded, chuckling at the look of confusion on Spock’s face.

 They walked to the office while Christine got into contact with Uhura to tell her to go to bed now that Spock was found and safe and Christine unlocked the doors to let Spock in. Once he reached the ground, he had his arms full of Jim and looked up to see Leonard shuffling over to him as quickly as he could with his feet trapped inside the attached feet of his costume. He made it about half way across the room before he tripped and fell face first onto the floor and Spock couldn’t help the bubble of inexplicable laughter as Leonard giggled and got up again as if nothing had happened and shoved himself into the hug. The way the shorter boy held him tightly reminded him of the way the intoxicated man had held his own older Vulcan, and he smiled, comfortable around his friend.

 “We missed ya, Spock!” Leonard exclaimed. “Jim even cried… again.”

Jim shoved at Leonard playfully. “You’re not supposed to tell him my secrets, we’re married, remember?!” That was when Spock noticed that Jim was wearing a pale pink tutu and a tiara, supposedly as a makeshift bridal get up.

“I’m sorry, Pumpkin.” Leonard smiled, moving to hug Jim singularly, and kissed his cheek sloppily.

“I forgive you. Just don’t do it again.” Jim said, smiling. Spock looked between the two, confused.

“What’s happening?” He asked.

“When you first left, me and Jimmy was real upset, but Miss ‘Hura told us that you couldn’t’a gone far, bein’ in space and all, so we should just keep playin’ ‘till you came back, but Jimmy was still upset and… and when my Mama is upset, Daddy always makes her happy again. And they’re married, so I thought I could make jimmy happy if we got married, and I did!” Leonard explained quickly, and showed off his ring that looked like it was just a bit of ribbon that had been tied, likely by Scotty, to his ring finger, and matched Jim’s.

“And I will love him ‘till death do us part.” Jim promised, left hand over his heart while his right hand held Leonard’s gloved one tightly. Spock regarded them with confusion and then looked to Scotty, sat at the desk and watching the proceedings with barely concealed amusement.

“Mr Scott? What time is it?”

The question seemed to throw Scotty off for a second, before he quickly got a padd and checked, his eyes widening. “Well, sh- I mean, I think it’s time you boys went to bed.”

Jim whined immediately. “It’s not that late, can’t we stay up a little later, Scotty?”

“I’m afraid not. Spies need to have enough sleep to built up their energy, you see?”

 “But I’m not a spy anymore, I’m a pilot! I needed a safer job so that I wasn’t in danger as much. Len said he wouldn’t marry me if I was just gonna off and die on a stupid spy mission.” Jim pouted, and Leonard nodded. Scotty was surprised at how much the young children were like their older selves, as Kirk and McCoy had had a very similar argument before they became a couple. It seemed no matter their ages, McCoy would always want his Kirk safe.

“Well pilots need sleep too! Don’t want to be crashing, do we? Come on. I know where there’s a room with two bunk beds.”

Jim’s expression changed to excited, and he agreed to go, following Scotty and carefully grabbing Spock’s arm so that he wouldn’t hurt him by touching his hands, so that they were all walking together.

When they got to the room, Jim called the top bunk and quickly got changed into the clothes that Scotty had given him to sleep in so he could climb onto one of the top bunks. The other two followed his lead, with Spock taking the other top bunk and Leonard refusing to go that high up for no good reason, thank you very much!

Scotty went to close the door before he heard his name spoken by the soft, scared voice of Leonard. 

“What is it, Len?” He asked, kneeling next to his bed to talk to the boy.

“I don’t like the dark.” He whispered. “Mama usually puts a little light on in the wall because it keeps the bad things away.”

“Right.” Scotty said, then moved over to a panel on the wall so he could make the light in the room low enough so the other two boys could sleep, but high enough that Leonard would feel safe. “That better?”

 “Yeah. Thanks. Night, Scotty.”

“Good night.” McCoy smiled shyly at him and Scotty took that as his queue to leave, shutting the door gently behind him as he heard Jim excitedly whispering to the other boys about what they should do tomorrow…


	5. Science

When Spock was suddenly jostled from his sleep, much earlier than the other boys, he was surprised to find both Leonard and Jim on either side of him, clutching at his pyjamas as they clung to him. It took him a moment to realise exactly why he’d woken up so abruptly, when a flash of a scary looking figure popped up in his mind, and a scene started playing out in which Leonard was being chased around the ship’s corridor by the figure, some kind of foreign species of alien with sharp teeth, pale eyes, and scaly skin and a little horrifying for an easily scared child, like Len. The alien chased him until they reached a door and the little boy opened it as fast as he could, only to find himself face to face with an empty darkness, which seemed to be enveloping everything around him. Spock recognised the familiar sight of space, but had never felt such a strong current of fear alongside it. Little Len then turned back to face the species that was quickly gaining on him, and knew that he had to make a decision but before Spock could find out what it was, he was dragged out of the scenario by a sharp kick in the leg. He had been experiencing Leonard’s dream because the boy had been holding Spock’s hand in his sleep. _Fascinating._

Spock was concerned at his friend’s distress but then was pulled into another reality, in which Jim was battling against several species, most notably a reptile. A large, red, fire-breathing reptile, which went down remarkably quickly at Jim’s onslaught. He watched and followed the blonde as he ran into a castle nearby and sprinted up many flights of stairs without so much as taking a breath, and went straight into the room he had been looking for. Spock tried to follow stealthily, but the sight of Leonard in a pink dress made him let out a noise of confusion, which caused Jim to turn to him. “Spock! I was wondering where you’d gotten to!”

“I have been here before?”

“Well duh… You was just riding a dragon, dummy! The deal was I take the red one, and you take the green and we both meet up here to save Princess Len.”

Leonard did not look displeased by the title, which confirmed that this was, in fact, Jim’s dream, and the real Leonard had nothing to do with it, else he’d have kicked up a fuss far sooner than this. “Jim, I need you to come with me.”

“What about L-“

“We can come back. But we need to do something important first.”

“I’ll wait right here, Jimmy.” Jim’s dream version of Leonard said and Jim nodded and kissed him on the cheek, before dramatically sweeping out of the room and dragging Spock with him.

“Where are we going?”

“I shall attempt to take us there.” Spock said, and Jim believed him surprisingly quickly. Spock concentrated for a few seconds, trying to reconnect with the feelings and visuals he had seen in Leonard’s dream and then felt a little spark of dread in the back of his head and followed it through tunnels of thought, bringing Jim along with him. Eventually they reached a door that Spock had to undo a lock for, and when they walked through, the same scene was playing out in Leonard’s head, with the alien now closer than before and grabbing Leonard’s arm as the rest of his little body drifted in space from the door.

Jim immediately burst into action and jumped on the alien’s back, causing it to let go of Leonard, leaving the small boy to drift off screaming. While Jim kept the alien distracted, Spock ran to the door and shouted to his friend. “Leonard! You must stop thinking about it.”

“I can’t!” The boy cried.

“Just take deep breaths and close your eyes. Can you do that, for me?” Leonard nodded. “Think about being next to me, about me holding you right here, on board the ship. Trust me.” The boy did as he was told, scrunching his eyes together in concentration one minute and then suddenly shaking in Spock’s arms in the next. Jim, who had seemingly gotten rid of the alien, a feat that neither other boy knew how he’d achieved, joined the two in their embrace, and Leonard stopped shaking in the hold of both boys. All three were then brusquely taken from their heart-warming scene by a bright light and the distant sound of Scotty telling them to… wake up? Oh.

The boys all moved as one as they sat up and rubbed their eyes at the red-shirted figure in the doorway, with three sets of clothes over his arm for the boys to wear, all seemingly little uniforms. “I sat up late last night and made you these professional uniforms so you’d all be official members of the enterprise crew. How does that sound, lads?” Scotty asked as he handed the garments to each of the boys individually.

Jim was excited at the prospect, clearly, thanking Scotty numerous times while he bounced up and down, barely able to control his emotions. Leonard was very thankful and was very happy by the calming shade of blue Scotty had provided for his uniform. ‘ _Mama says blue is her favourite colour ‘cause it’s the colour of a nice, sunny Georgia day’._ Spock inspected his uniform carefully and nodded his consent to wearing it, impressed with the craftsmanship, though why the professional hand surprised him was beyond him, since Scotty was clearly a very skilled individual.

Half an hour later, the boys emerged from their room clean, awake and in their respective uniforms. They fit very well apart from Leonard’s slightly too long sleeves that he kept pushing up so they wouldn’t cover his little curious hands when they grabbed at everything he could see.

“What should we do today then, hm?” Scotty asked.

Instead of getting one clear answer, however, all three boys spoke at once: “Captain’s chair!” “I wanna help the doctors!” “I would like to examine the science facilities.”

“Ah…” Scotty faltered for a minute, nodding. “Okay, um, I think it would be best to keep you all together so… we’ll do all three, yeah? Science first, then the doctors, and then the Captain’s chair. Is that alright?”

The boys nodded, and they all set off towards the labs, Spock walking a little faster than normal, the only outward sign that he was excited. The other boys walked behind the other two, Jim rattling off about his dream where, “ _I saved you, Len! Are you even listening?”_ and McCoy constantly stifling yawns because, _“I don’t know, Jimmy, I’m tired.”_

When they arrived in the science labs, the crew seemed to stop all as one and turn to the boys. They had heard of what had happened from gossips working on the bridge, but had been sceptical and, well, they couldn’t have been more wrong. “Oh no. I see that sparkle in your eyes. Dinnae think you’ll be testing on the wee lads!” About half of the science department actually slumped their shoulders in disappointment but it seems the rest of them hadn’t planned on that in the first place. Scotty decided to keep the boys away from the disappointed lot.

Spock, confident as ever, walked up to one of the gaping scientists and asked if he could see the database for all of the beings on the ship, and the stunned scientist nodded, helping him up onto a rather high chair before setting a padd before him and opening up the database with her passcode.

Still being looked at oddly, though some activity had returned to the room, Jim hid slightly behind Leonard, hands fisted in the back of the little boy’s blue shirt. As it was, Leonard wasn’t awake enough to register that they were even where they’d set off for, and let Jim hide from the big bad scientists behind him. A few of them tried to talk to him, and maybe offer Leonard a form of caffeine to stay awake, as his older counterpart was so fond of ( Scotty was not particularly fond of that idea), but he just stuck to gestures.

Spock, meanwhile, looked up Vulcans currently assigned to the enterprise and was surprised to find that the only identity he could find matching any Vulcan was of a one S’chn T’gai Spock, half human, half Vulcan First Officer of the ship. His first instinct was to assume that his parents had named him after the man, though the idea that he would not have heard of him after such a dedication made no sense. While he was deliberating this, he looked down at his uniform and realised it was same blue that the Spock on the database was wearing. It took a few seconds, but the pieces eventually fell into place. He researched more into his last mission and discovered that his likely older self was sent to a planet two days ago for a meeting and came back young. “Why am I a child?” Spock asked the woman who had given him the padd.

“It’s because of the regenerative properties of the substance you consumed, sir.” She replied, adding the sir on instinct. “The species uses it as a method of staying youthful. It is the reason their population only ever increases, and is also banned. The proceedings of that case are being taken care of by other Starfleet officers while you’re currently ah… incapacitated.”

“I see.” Spock nodded. “May I take this padd with me.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir.”

“May I remind you, according to this, that I am your senior officer?”

 “No, sorry sir.” The scientists said, though she wasn’t as afraid of the five year old as he clearly wished her to be, and just didn’t see much harm in letting him look at scientific data, if that’s what he wanted to do.

 “Good.” He slipped down from his chair, ruining the idea that he was just as composed as his adult self as he wobbled when his feet hit the floor that had been at quite a distance from his small feet. He straightened up after the slight tumble, however, and walked back over to his friends, keeping the padd firmly in his arms. Jim and Leonard were sat on a table watching another scientist, clearly more comfortable around children that the one he’d talked to, performing harmless experiments full of colour and fizzes and a little bit of fire. The other boys were entranced by the display, so Spock asked Scotty to be seated at the high table, and nodded gratefully when he was lifted onto a chair.

 While the other two boys were getting scolded for trying to run their hands through a bare flame, Spock opened up his file again, and set to find out who the two men in the picture in that room were, though he already had a sneaking suspicion, and 37 seconds of scanning over the information later, he confirmed that the two men with which his older self was intimately familiar was, in fact, Jim and Leonard, his mates. Jim and Leonard were the equivalent of married on Earth, and had been married longer than they had been emotionally bonded with Spock, and shared with him a Vulcan marriage, so the documents said. The thought made him somewhat uncomfortable, not because he didn’t like his friends, but because he couldn’t imagine being in a relationship like his parents’ with two human men without being ridiculed more than he usually is. “Do people seek to hurt me? Emotionally?” He asked Scotty, to which the engineer gave him a confused look but shook his head. “When I am normal, I mean. When I am older.” Scotty looked shocked and glanced down at the padd, where the documents were still open.

 “Who gave you that?”

“Answer my question first, Mr Scott.”

 “Nobody seeks to hurt you, Spock. You’re one of the most respected members of the crew and-“

“-and you’re admired and loved more than you could possibly understand. The only one whose allowed to ridicule you is Doctor McCoy.” A familiar female voice said from behind them. Uhura, Spock’s mind supplied helpfully. 

“Why is he ‘allowed’ such a thing? Who allows him?”

“You do.” Uhura chuckled and sat down next to Spock, the other two boys still too busy watching and trying to interfere with something red and foamy filling up a glass tube to notice.

“Are you certain?”

“Absolutely.” She sighed when she saw the sceptical look on Spock’s young face, and was saddened by it, because no child should feel so alone. “Right now it may not seem as if everything makes sense or is even fair for you, and it isn’t, but right here you have a family. Every single person on this ship would lay down their life for you, because you are important and you are loved, and those two-“ She pointed at Jim and Leonard, the former of which was covered in the red, foamy substance that was turning his skin blue, and was laughing at Leonard because the latter had bright pink hair and was giggling endlessly at Jim’s bright blue hands, “-they love you more than anyone. You are not alone, Spock, and you never will feel that way again. Things get better.”

“Thank you.” The Vulcan boy whispered, beginning to get choked up. “I will not tell them the truth about their youth, I promise. I was merely curious.”

“Its fine, sweetheart, but enjoy being younger for a little longer now, hm? Go get pink hair and blue skin with your friends and let yourself feel. It’ll be fun and you’ll enjoy it, honestly.”

Spock raised an eyebrow at her before nodding in acceptance and handing the padd to her so he could go and sit next to his friends. Uhura’s gentle personality and tone reminded him of his mother, and he was not about to disregard such a kind woman.

A few minutes later, Spock discovered that yes, being blue with pink hair was quite fun, but more so when he was sharing the experience with his friends. Scotty and Uhura smiled at the three boys having fun, and then Uhura turned to the engineer. “Where to next?”

“Little McCoy wants to go help the doctors.” 

“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. How many nurses do you think will coo over him?”

“I guess we’re about to find out, but I bet M’Benga will be the worst for it.”


	6. Doctor's assistant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for how short this chapter is I'll try to add more to the next one :)

Scotty watched the scene play out before him with a hand over his mouth to poorly conceal his laughter.

Christine was trying to grab the attention of the current CMO, whose attention was absolutely taken by the actual young CMO. “Doctor M’Benga please-“

“What do you say, Len? You’re a doctor now, right? Want to help me?” The boy nodded eagerly, tightening his grip on M’Benga’s shirt in his excitement. “Christine.” The Doctor whispered, as if McCoy couldn’t hear him. “Look at his little hands. Look at them, Christine.”

“Yes, Sir, I see them.”

“They’re so tiny. Can we keep him, Christine?”

Chapel raised an eyebrow at the expectant faces of McCoy and M’Benga, both awaiting her serious answer. “Geoffrey, there is a very impatient ensign that has been waiting for treatment for half an hour now.”

“Fine.” M’Benga sighed, putting Leonard down on a bio-bed.

“Don’t go!” Leonard pleaded, grabbing the air in M’Benga’s direction, to which the older doctor turned to Christine and gave her a pained look.

“Okay, aright,” she gave in with a shake of her head, “you can bring him, but keep him out of trouble.”

“You’re no trouble are you, Len?” The small boy shook his head and smiled when M’Benga picked him back up with one arm and settled him on his hip when they entered the examination room to see the aforementioned ensign cradling his arm while he sat on the bio-bed. “What seems to be the problem this time, ensign?” Geoffrey asked, sitting down and putting Leonard on his knee, who rested his arms on the desk and folded his hands in the same way M’Benga was, which made the other man melt inside.

“I don’t really know, Doctor, its just really tingly over, but numb at the same time, you know?”

 Leonard looked confused for a minute, and looked at M’Benga who raised an eyebrow at the ensign, and Leonard copied. “Do you know what caused it?”

“Well, one of the ensigns in science said they wanted to test out a new drug, so-“

“So you took it without thinking about the consequences?” The ensign nodded and M’Benga sighed, shaking his head. Before he could get another word out, however, he was interrupted by McCoy.

“What if you’d been allergic?” The ensign turned his attention to the small boy and shrugged. “You know, my Daddy is a doctor, and he says if a doctor ain’t giving you drugs, you don’t take ‘em.” The boy’s voice was stern as he could manage, and the ensign nodded sheepishly.

“We’ll need to take a blood sample.” M’Benga said, still grinning at the boy’s outburst, and trying not to chuckle. “Len, could you go and get Christine for me? Tell her that she needs to get the database up for all numbing agents and newly developed drugs in the science labs, okay? Can you remember that?”

“Get up data for numb stuff and new drugs, got it! I’ll do you proud, Mr Geoffrey!” Leonard promised as he hopped down to the floor and left the room as quickly as his little legs would take him. Upon exiting, he realised that without the height advantage of being on M’Benga’s hip, he couldn’t see above the bio-beds, and didn’t know where Christine was. He did, however, run into Jim, who was seemingly playing hide and seek, and he dragged Leonard to kneel behind a bed with him.

“Hey! Have you stopped playing Doctor now?” The blonde asked. “It’s pretty boring in here. I mean, except for the computers and tools and stuff, but we’re not allowed to play with those, Chapel says.”

“I’m not playing, Jimmy, I’m helping. You are my wife, ain’t you? You’re supposed to be nice to me and the things I like. I don’t call you sittin’ in a big chair boring now do I?”

“I’m not saying you’re boring, Len. I love you. I just don’t like doctoring all that much.”

“It’s alright. Come on, you can do it with me. Where’s Spock?”

“He’s playing the bad guy. That’s why we’re hiding.” Jim explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Well, get up. Nobody should be messin’ around in a Doctor’s work area. Daddy would throw a fit if I did. Besides, I have to go get Christine to look up numbin’ stuff and new drugs. You coming?” McCoy extended a hand to Jim, which the boy gratefully took and headed out from behind the bed. “Spock!” McCoy called out, to which the Vulcan boy appeared almost instantly before them. “You coming with me to help the doctor?”

“If that is your wish.”

“You think I’d leave you out, Spock? Come on.” Leonard was then walking with confident strides towards Christine. “Ma’am?”

“Yes, Leonard?”

“Doctor Geoff asked if you could get out the information on that numbin’ stuff, and um… drugs! Not the good kind I don’t think. I’d get ‘em all up just to be safe.” Christine nodded, and the small boy nodded back before turning himself and the other boys around towards M’Benga’s office. He was a little rough however, and Spock walked into a bed, letting off a clinking sound. “What was that?” Leonard asked, then grabbed for where the sound came from, and took out a small vial from Spock’s pocket with purple liquid in it.

“I took it from the lab. I wished to run my own experiments on it.”

“What is it?” Jim asked. “It looks like it would taste real good. Is it poisonous?”

“No, it is edible, but I do not suggest-“

“I wanna drink it.” Jim said.

“Well, why should you get to?” Len challenged.

“You wouldn’t dare, but I’m brave. Mommy says so!”

“Well Mama says I’m brave too! I wanna drink it!”

“That’s not fair!” Jim whined as Leonard uncapped the vial and brought it to his lips.

“Come on, its edible, Spock said so. If you’re gonna do it you have to promise to-”

“-Jim, I don’t think-“ Spock tried to interject but was quickly spoken over.

“-tell me what it tastes like.”

Leonard shrugged and eyed the liquid warily. Spock wasn’t sure what to do and simply stared at the vial in Leonard’s hand , as if he could simply will the boy to not drink it with a look. Jim on the other hand, had had enough waiting, and tipped the vial into Leonard’s mouth. He coughed as the first few drops choked him with their sudden entrance, which caught the attention of Scotty, who had been talking to Uhura about switching her baby sitting duty with Chekov for a while. He immediately ran over to the boys and took the bottle from Leonard, though the boy had already drank most of it's contents, in a bid to prove Jim wrong.

“What on earth are you doing?” Scotty reprimanded, picking up McCoy.

“Daddy’s not gonna be angry is he?” McCoy asked, sobering up from his petty emotions that had stemmed from his fight with Jim. His bottom lip wobbled as he tried to contain his sorrow. “I didn’t wanna cause trouble and I know I shouldn’t have- Shouldn’t have-“ He cut himself off in order to cry into Scotty’s uniform.

“I took it from the lab.” Spock said.

“I thought you were the smart one?” Scotty asked, disappointed, but McCoy had stopped crying at the admittance, and held his hand out to Spock, who took it carefully to try and convey a sense of calm to the smaller boy. _You are not alone, Leonard._

_Thank you, Spock._

“I want to go to the Captain’s Chair!” Jim complained, crossing his arms.

Scotty rolled his eyes but motioned for Uhura to pick him up. “You take him and Spock to the bridge and I’ll wait here while McCoy gets checked over by a doctor.” Uhura nodded and started to walk away before Scotty called out to her once more. “Oh, and Nyota? For the love of god, keep the lads out of trouble.”


	7. Baby mine

As soon as Jim set foot on the bridge, he was demanding that Sulu get off his chair, and taking his place on what he called “the throne of the star ship.” From there, he started ordering around the bridge crew, who obliged his game and pretended to go through space at his demand. The absolute delight and wonderment on his face made the make-believe worth it for them.

 Spock, on the other hand, was more interested in seeing the control panels that surrounded Sulu and Chekov. Sulu, however, was engaged in the game with Jim, so Spock casually strolled up next to Chekov and asked if he could watch him. Because of the other’s young face and cheeky smile, Spock did not feel intimidated by Chekov, and wasn’t too ruffled when the young pilot pulled Spock onto his knee so he could better see the range of buttons. “What does this one do?” Spock asked, as he pushed the biggest button.

“Zat just opens up zhe communications. If you want to see something better, press zat one!” Chekov took Spock’s little hand in his own bigger one, and guided it to a smaller button on the top of the panel, while Sulu noticed the motion and did something with his panel to compliment Chekov’s actions automatically, the efficient workers that they were. “Look!” Spock looked up at the shimmer that flew past the window and sparkled in a wall of a low light, feeling Chekov’s excitement through his hand.

“What’s that?”

“Zhat’s zhe defence shield.”

“I remember when I showed Demora that for the first time.” Sulu recalled wistfully. “Of course, she didn’t like it all that much.”

“Ran to her veery safe Uncle Chekov, da? I remember.” Chekov stated proudly, then turned his attention back to Spock. “Zhe shields make sure we do not get damaged too much during attacks.”

“And you control them? So you are, essentially, the man to run to if in danger? The safest member of the Bridge Crew?” Spock came to his conclusion quickly, and Chekov nodded happily in response.

“Da! You are ever in trouble, you can come see Uncle Chekov. I am good at getting people out of trouble!” Spock was perplexed at the ‘uncle’ part of this statement, but figured that he should just go with it, not really familiar with human customs that were not exhibited by his mother.

“That’s not a good thing!” Sulu quipped.

“You veren’t saying zhat when you didn’t have to call Ben to pay your bail.”

“What’s bail?” Spock asked.

“Um… You don’t need to know about zhat yet.” Chekov answered, then turned Spock’s attention back to how to take down the shields.

Jim watched the exchange with glee. However, being the social creature he was, wanted someone to talk to too, and pressed the button on his chair that Uhura said not to press because it would mean the whole ship could hear him. “Attention star ship! This is your captain speaking. Can the person with the most candy go ahead and pop up the bridge? Thank you. Jim out.” He then sat back, pleased with himself, even as Uhura glared at him, and the rest of the bridge giggled, making Uhura say, “Don’t encourage him!” which only served to encourage him more.

Not two minutes later, a young ensign made her way nervously onto the bridge with a basket of sugary treats for the Captain. “I was told to bring these here, Sir.”

“Thank you.” Jim said, taking the heavy basket from her and putting it next to him on the chair, pulling out a red liquorice stick as he did. “Ensign?”

“Yes Captain?”

“You’re very pretty.”

“Um…” The young blonde looked to Uhura nervously who just shrugged and mouthed ‘go along with it’. She then turned back to Kirk and offered him a smile. “Thank you, Captain.”

“Would you like to be my second wife?” Jim asked with upmost sincerity.

The whole bridge turned to the ensign to see her response, which was to let out a startled laugh, damaging Jim’s pride a little. “I don’t think that’s for the best, Captain.”

“Why not?” Jim demanded.

“Well, what about your first wife?”

“He’s not here at the moment.”

“I believe, Jim, that Leonard referred to _you_ as the wife.” Spock inserted, making the bridge laugh again.

“That’s right!” Jim exclaimed. “You can be my first wife. Ensign Kirk, how does that sound?” The woman was about to answer when a comm cut her off, and the sound of a baby screaming cut through the air, followed by a plea for Scotty to get down to the medbay immediately. “Scotty, pick me up. It’s the only way we can get there quickly! Spock, you stay here with Chekov and keep the ship under control. Mr Sulu,” Jim addressed, hopping off his chair and running towards the pilot, and placing a small hand on his knee when he got there as he looked with seriousness into Sulu’s eyes, “you look after my chair, you hear?”

“Yes Captain.”

“Brilliant. Scotty come on we don’t have all day!” Jim complained and Scotty rushed over to pick him up before taking off for a lift, leaving Chekov to keep Spock entertained with the technology he was in control of.

When they got down to med-bay, they heard the crying immediately. The first thing they saw was a very stressed looking Christine holding a squirming child wearing a light blue baby-grow with eyes as dark brown as his curly hair. “Would that be our little McCoy by chance?”

“Yep. Not so cute when he won’t stop crying. M’Benga is distracted by a case at the moment, so I think we could sneak him out before he tries to adopt him-“

“Can I hold him?” Jim asked, looking at the small boy in wonder. He wiggled out of Scotty’s grip and held his arms out to Christine expectantly.

“Alright… but you have to be very careful, he’s only little.”

“I will be I promise.” Christine placed the child in Jim’s arms and told him how to hold him properly, surprised to find that the closer to Jim Leonard got, the more he calmed down, and once he was in Jim’s hold he wasn’t crying anymore, just trying to grab Jim’s hair with his chunky fingers. “I always wanted a little brother! This one looks just like Len.”

“That is Len, Jim. That thing he drank made him little.”

“This is Len? But he’s so cute. And tiny. Guess we can’t be married any more. Never mind, I’ll be his Dad from now on, since there isn’t one here. What do you think about that, Len?” Len looked up into Jim’s eyes and was mesmerised by the bright colour, reaching out to grab them, and giggled when Jim shifted his head out of the way, and chose to grab the hand Jim had offered him instead, while he balanced the boy on his hip the same way Uhura had done to him earlier. “Does he have any toys?” Jim asked Christine.

“There aren’t any baby toys on-board I’m afraid, Captain.”

“That’s alright. Babies play with anything, don’t they? Sammy says I was a dumb baby ‘cause I used to play with everything but mommy said that all babies do that.” Jim then turned his attention back to Bones, who was drooling around the small thumb in his mouth. “We’ll find something for you to do, won’t we? Yes we will.” And then Jim was walking off with self-assured strides, which Scotty had no choice but to shrug and follow, warning Jim again that he needed to be careful. When they arrived back on the bridge, about 15 minutes later due to Jim’s determination to go slow and keep Leonard safe, they were met with coos and gasps of delight.

“Oh my God, is that Lenny?” Uhura asked softly, at which Jim nodded. “Can I hold him?”

“You have to be careful, and you have to let him hold onto something on you, or he’ll get real sad ‘cause he thinks you don’t want him.” Jim glanced at Leonard’s chubby fingers gripping his uniform shirt to prove his point, then manoeuvred Leonard into Uhura’s arms with minimal fuss from the small child. While this exchange occurred, Spock hopped from ‘Uncle’ Chekov’s lap and over to Jim to get a better look at the child as he giggled while Uhura gently prodded at him.

“He is, as mother would put it, the most adorable thing I have ever seen.” He stated in monotone, relaying the absolute truth. “I have a pet, I-Chaya, back home. He is a sehlat and I had believed up until this moment, that I-Chaya as a pup was _cute_ but it seems I was mistaken.”

“Yeah, well you’re his mother now, so you best like him.” Jim stated matter-of-factly.

“Jim that makes no sense-“

“Well we can’t both be his Daddy can we?” Jim asked, as if that would make it make any more sense to Spock.

“Of course we can. There are many relationships as such on earth, and even a few on Vulcan. It is most likely-“

“Fine, _I’ll_ be his mother.” Jim rolled his eyes and adopted a tone he’d heard his own mother use before to direct the next words to Uhura. “Pfft, _men_ , right?”

“Indeed Captain.” Uhura chuckled, and Leonard chuckled along with her, then tried grabbing at her hair. Seeing as it was longer than Jim’s, he found it a simple task and tugged playfully, making Uhura wince and tell Leonard off.

“Stop that, Len.” She said as she got her hair back from the unrelenting grip of the child. When she did though, she regretted it immediately, as she saw tears well up in the little boy’s eyes, and her heart broke when the first one rolled down Leonard’s cheeks which were steadily growing red and a little hiccup escaped to start off his cry. “Honey, its alright, no.” But it was too late, and Jim was furious.

“What have you done? I told you that you gotta let him hold you so he doesn’t get upset! Give him back to me.” He demanded, holding out his arms expectantly. Uhura looked to Scotty, who nodded, and she followed his instruction, finding that Leonard calmed down when he got a good grip on Jim’s shirt again. “Anybody else?” He asked to the bridge, to which Sulu and Chekov immediately piped up. “What do you think, Spock? You’re his Daddy, who do you trust?”

“Mr Sulu is a worthy man of our trust, though Mr Chekov is much more favourable to play with. I believe Leonard would prefer to be in the hold of the latter. I think Sulu should hold him first, then Chekov, because we cannot predict the first reaction.” Sulu looked a little offended, but Jim just shrugged, and walked over to Sulu. The pilot was determined to prove that _he was good with kids, damn it_ and happily received Leonard into his arms, but proved too eager for the boy, who struggled in his hold and made noises of discomfort, reaching his grabby hands towards Jim.

“You gotta be less smiley, Sulu, he doesn’t like it. Try to rock him a little, talk to him.”

Sulu felt ridiculous taking advice about fathering from 5 year old Jim Kirk, but followed the advice anyway, babbling in baby speak to McCoy, glad to find that the baby was happy to pay attention to him and grace him with an almost toothless smile that reminded him of his daughter. Leonard’s deep hazel eyes were still shiny from his previous tears, but with him smiling they shined with his amusement and his chubby, rosy cheeks made him even more adorable. Sulu was also drawn to the small boy’s brown curly hair. “Well, I never thought I’d say this, but McCoy is perhaps the cutest thing aboard this ship.” He smiled down at the boy again, which made Leonard start squirming again, eager to get back to Jim, instead of being with the man that only interacted with him at Jim’s insistence.

“Thank you.” Jim said, taking Leonard back, and making Sulu frown at the loss of the child. He missed Demora being that small. Jim didn’t pay him any mind though, and simply walked over to Chekov to give him the child. Unlike with Sulu, Leonard immediately loved Chekov when the Russian let him grab onto one of the tight curls on his blonde head and giggled when he heard the funny sound Chekov made around words when he was talking to him. The child had no idea what was being said of course, but the bubbly nature of the words and the different sounds were delightful to Leonard’s ears. He especially loved it when he was lifted so that his feet barely touched Chekov’s knees, and he was standing like the other people in the room. He bounced experimentally, felling safe in Chekov’s hold, to find that the Russian pilot was strong enough for him to play as much as he wanted. When Sulu started talking again, Leonard made a sound of discontent and snuggled closer to Chekov, laying flat on his stomach as he deliberately flopped forward onto Chekov’s chest to avoid hearing Sulu, at which the other pilot rolled his eyes at Chekov’s smug grin.

Jim had seemingly had enough of the men using his child as a means of settling who was naturally better with kids, though it was apparent that if Chekov could keep Spock entertained, it was clear who the winner was, and took Leonard back into his arms, who resumed his beginning position on Jim’s hip, thumb in his mouth, hand fisted in his shirt. People started gathering around the three boys, wanting to get a hold of Leonard, which made the boy nervous and start to struggle and make small whines of discomfort.

“If you could please give Leonard some space, I would be grateful.” Came Spock’s voice, louder than anyone had heard him speak as a child. The sound seemed to sooth Leonard at any rate. “Mr Scott, could you take us to a more private place? Where Leonard will be more comfortable?”

“You know what? I think I have just the place…”


	8. Bed Time

Scotty made sure to check that every pointy edge in their Captain, CMO, and First Officer’s quarters was cushioned appropriately before he let the three boys in, where Jim sat his little Leonard gently down on the floor and garnered for his attention with a shiny pen he had nabbed from the table. Spock raised an eyebrow at the photos that were still on display from the last time he was in the room, then looked at Jim acting as if the pen were an aeroplane for Leonard’s amusement and figured there need not have been a worry either would figure out the truth.

Scotty sat on the couch, watching the boys carefully, knowing full well that their age wouldn’t stop them from being little deviants. He glanced at the clock to read 7:30 and knew that if the boys stayed up much longer they would not get up tomorrow. They still needed to be fed and clothe before bed too, which gave them even less playtime, but was a sacrifice they would have to make. “Another thirty minutes, boys, then bed time.” He decided they would have to be bathed in the morning first thing, because hew as too tired as it was, and had two kids and one baby to cater for before sleep was anywhere on his schedule. God, he was getting old.

As Scotty made his way to the replicator to provide a small meal for the boys, the little Vulcan turned to explore further, an action that was preceded by a sad whimper from the child on the floor.

_‘Pock_

The Vulcan turned around so fast that there were little flashes at the sides of his eyes. “What?” He asked, a little too sharply it seemed for the younger child, who flinched at the sound then hitched his breath before letting a tear roll down his chubby cheek as his face contorted, ready to scream, before Jim waved a hand in front of Leonard to capture his attention so that he could stop the baby from crying.

“Don’t go.” Jim pleaded, quietly. It was unusual to hear Jim sound so… vulnerable, and Spock was curious as to why, though before he got a chance to ask, Jim was speaking again. “It’s not nice to let people think you’re going to stay and then just go. He’ll think you don’t want him, Spock. He needs to know you’re not gonna leave him.” Spock moved to sit beside Jim and watched Leonard stare at them with deep, concerned eyes. Jim did his best not to make his sadness show at the prospect of being left, but Spock could see it.

“I will not leave him, Jim. Nor will I leave you.” Jim nodded, looking appeased, and Spock sighed in relief. Jim took his hand gently, sending Spock his loneliness and a memory of a blonde woman, Jim’s mother he assumed, running up to Jim and apologising for being so late because ‘ _Sammy hurt his leg I never meant to leave you here for this long’ to_ which another female voice, Jim’s teacher, his mind supplied, said, _‘Miss Kirk, Jim has been waiting for two and a half hours, he thought he’d been abandoned he is just very upset right now’._

“Spock-“

“Pock!”

Both older boys turned to the little boy on the floor who was bouncing excitedly with his arms doing a grabby motion towards the Vulcan. “You were his first word.” Jim whispered, equally excited and proud. Spock was stunned, and didn’t know what to do, which only made Leonard impatient, so he leaned as far forward towards Spock as he could before falling forward onto the floor, then rolling over and giggling, still looking at the Vulcan. Jim sighed in exasperation and picked Leonard up to put him into Spock’s arms, showing him how to hold the boy on his lap so he couldn’t roll away.

“Hello, Leonard.” Spock said, and didn’t move his head away when the little boy ran his tiny fingers through his silky, black hair. He also never declined when the point of his ear was grabbed and prodded at as the boy giggled. Even five year old Leonard had brought his ears up, albeit more politely in conversation, but still. It made him wonder what fascination the young doctor would grow to have for his unusual anatomy.

“Easy to play with when you know how, isn’t he?” Jim asked, smiling and offering one of his fingers to Leonard, who grasped it tightly in his baby grip and moved Jim’s arm back and forth as an endless supply of amusement, laughing delightedly at his power, then grabbed Spock’s cheek, supplying the Vulcan with a sense of hunger laced with unrepressed joy and amusement, so strong and pure that Spock almost laughed for no reason, but managed to keep it to himself for the task at hand.

“He is hungry.” Spock stated, mostly to Scotty, who took the hint and got some regenerated milk in a baby bottle, which he checked on his wrist for temperature before giving it to Spock.

“Do you know how to feed him properly?” Scotty asked, to which Spock shook his head. Jim piped up, however.

“I do, I know!” Jim then gently took Leonard and put him into a comfortable position laying back against his arm and took the bottle from Spock, before feeding Leonard the milk. For how much adult Leonard complained, Scotty thought, baby Leonard seemed to think regenerated milk was just as good as the real thing.

When Len had finished the bottle, Jim put him over hi shoulder and patted his back gently, rubbing a few times before the baby burped and giggled and Spock raised an eyebrow at the disgusting display. Jim then set Leonard back down on the floor to play with the collection of little things that had been around them to amuse the child, while Scotty gave him and Spock some sort of sandwiches that tasted really good according to Jim, and even more so according to Spock, if the crumbs on his shirt were anything to go by. Jim knew that the boy would be embarrassed if he pointed it out though, so ‘accidentally’ knocked a few of his crumbs onto the other boy, apologising and wiping them off afterwards. They then handed their plates back to Scotty, who took them to be washed before returning quickly to make sure the boys hadn’t done anything mischievous because he could never know with those three. However, they were simply playing as they had been before their meals, keeping Leonard entertained with any objects they could find, the boy being absolutely enthralled and not knowing which way to look but laughing anyway.

The boys played in a similar fashion until Leonard started yawning and quickly fell into a deep sleep leaning against Jim, drooling as he did so.

“Well, it has been a long day for you laddies.” Scotty said as he picked up McCoy as gently as he could and cradled him in his arm, wiping away the saliva at the corner of the boy’s mouth with his sleeve. “One of you can sleep in the bed and one can sleep on the couch. I’ll put wee Len in the cot I’ve made and you’ll have to be very quiet, because we dinnae want him screamin’ the house down.”

“Mr Scott,” Spock whispered, “we are not in a house-“

“Figure of speech, Spock, now get into your night clothes that Uhura brought along and get ready for bed.” Scotty said sternly.

“Yes, Sir.” The boys replied in unison, and Scotty just nodded, the novelty of being _actually listened to_ by his superiors worn off.

Jim, chivalrous as always, offered Spock the bed after they had gotten dressed, and dragged a spare quilt from the wardrobe over to the couch, leaving the wardrobe door wide open. Spock sighed after Jim had left and went to close the doors before he noticed something familiar in the corner. Sitting at the back, hiding behind some fallen clothes, was the stuffed sehlat his mother had given him when he was as young as Leonard currently was. It looked a little less new than it had before, its fur a little matted but still soft, but other than that it looked as he had remembered it last. It was to remind him that if the ‘big bad monsters’ from outer space came for him, an illogical fear he’d held as an infant, that I-Chaya was always outside to protect him. He distinctly remembered waking in the middle of some nights, too ashamed to wake his father because of his fear, and seeing the stuffed toy his mother had held so much faith in. He hadn’t even realised he was hugging the stuffed toy until he was broken from his memories by a sharp cry from Leonard. He immediately followed the sound and found the boy sobbing in his crib as Jim and Scotty attempted to rock him back to sleep.

Spock peered over the crib and touched the baby’s face gently, sharing with him the fond memory of his stuffed toy, and how he would be protected if he woke up and couldn’t see anyone immediately there, which is what Spock had guessed scared the child to tears, then placed I-Chaya’s mini double into the cot with Leonard, and almost smiled as the boy simmered back into sleep. “Good night, Leonard.” He said, and leaned down the kiss the boy softly on the head as his mother had done when he was a child, and still insisted on doing, a gesture he always found comforting. “Good night, Jim.” He kissed the boy on the cheek as his father did to his mother at her insistence. “And good night to you, Mr Scott.” He bowed respectfully and made his way back to his room, then got into bed and laid down, letting his mind drift back to memories of Vulcan before he fell into a quiet sleep.


	9. Cartoons

Leonard jolted awake at the quiet sound of a door closing somewhere in the now light room. He turned to look at what made the sound but didn’t find his Mama next to him like usual since she’d had to sell his cot to pay for a visit to the vets with one of the horses. Leonard had been on her hip, a plastic toy in his mouth when she’d done that. He didn’t understand what she was doing of course, but he’d been in her arms as the big man took away his bed, and then she’d started talking about the ‘horsies’. He knew what they were because she pointed them out on the farm all the time, and he figured that one of them probably needed the cot more than he did, and he was okay with that. He couldn’t communicate that thought quite yet, so he stayed silent when she was explaining things to him slowly, in that adult way she did, knowing full well he didn’t know what she was saying, in hopes that she knew he wasn’t upset with the idea. 

Now, though, he seemed to be in a cot again, but not his own. No, this ones bars were much taller, and he grabbed at one, trying to lift himself into a sitting position, and whined when that turned out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. He heard a voice react to his whine, high but steady, and remembered the little green man from yesterday that had been friends with his saviour. _Spock._ He had to get his attention, because though he had been scary at first, now he was familiar. Now he was _safe._ He pulled himself into a sitting position with much difficulty and used the little stuffed bear he had been given to hold to his chest and balance himself. It was soft to the touch, and he really liked how easily he could squeeze it in his arms. He pulled the toy away from him, then set it in front of him, so they were facing each other. After studying it carefully, he decided he liked the look of his new teddy bear, with little white teeth and big, curious brown eyes like his own. He reached out to touch the fur again with his left hand, then put his right in his own hair, and found the teddy’s was much softer. He then reached over to pet its nose, but the teddy fell back with the force of his touch and he fell after it, landing softly on top and giggling. He then shook his head and remembered the reason he was awake and making any noise at all. “’Pock?”

Spock turned at the sound of his name being spoken aloud. He had heard various strong thoughts drift from baby Leonard, those being _Spock_ and _safe_ , which he took as a confirmation that Leonard was comfortable with him being in the room, and wasn’t going to cry. The little thoughts had made him feel a little warm inside at being immediately and unquestionably accepted by the innocence of a child that should, by all rights, find him scary. Most human children his father introduced him to did, but not Leonard. He walked over to the cot and looked down at Leonard, as the baby reciprocated the look of innocence with a wide smile and open arms, one hand clinging to I-Chaya II. “Good morning, Leonard.” The baby made a grabbing motion with his free hand, and Spock knew now that this meant Leonard wanted to be held, and did so. Immediately, the small boy snuggled into the warmth exuding from Spock, tickling the Vulcan’s nose with his curly hair.

Spock had waken up earlier than Jim, naturally, and was hungry, so he’d gotten dressed in the clothes Scotty had left out for him for the day, which consisted of the same uniform from yesterday that had ben washed and modified to look more professional and now included a black undershirt. He set Leonard down at a chair with arms at the kitchen table, making sure to keep him sitting upright as he clung to the teddy. He then made sure to keep in Leonard’s line of sight while he prepared fruit for himself and copied Scotty’s actions to get some sort of baby food for Leonard. He then got a little spoon, set his own fruit on the table and sat facing Leonard with the small spoon and the little jar of mushy stuff that the computer assured him was safe for babies. Assuming Leonard wouldn’t be capable of feeding himself, he fed Leonard in the same way his mother had done for him when he was a child, occasionally adding in a swoop and engine sound for the child’s amusement. As long as nobody saw him, he was spared the embarrassment of the completely illogical action, which was worth making Leonard laugh.

“Spock?” Well, that lasted long.

“Good Morning, Mr Scott.”

Scotty sat next to the boys, putting the padd he’d just taken a video on of Spock and McCoy next to him, so he could take over from Spock’s position to feed Leonard. Spock thanked him and ate his fruit, then asked Scotty if he could take a shower, to which the engineer said he could if he agreed to wake up Jim. This was a task Spock had not expected to be so difficult.

The energy that usually filled the boy seemed to have diminished at this early hour, and Jim was making Spock’s job a particularly difficult one by wrapping himself in blankets to the point of near suffocation so he could avoid the artificial morning light and the sound of Spock’s wake up call.

“Jim, you must wake if you wish to command the bridge and care for Leonard.”

“But being a grown up is hard.” Came the muffled complaint from the blanket mountain Spock was currently glaring at.

“Be that as it may, you have to-“

“I don’t wanna!” Jim complained.

“If you just-“

“No!”

“Please think-“

“No!” Jim was shouting now, and Spock felt his anger rise too quickly to stop.

“You’re being- being irrespon- irresponsible!” He stuttered, then put his head down, ashamed. His father has told him off numerous times for reverting to stuttering when he got too emotional. His mother had explained that it was perfectly alright and often normal for human children to speak in such a manner when they were too emotional, but his father had stated that Spock was to act like a Vulcan if he wished to be accepted as one. From that, he had built patience and calm. Patience and calm that Jim was testing. “Get up! Now!”

“Fine!” Jim shouted, throwing his covers at Spock before storming to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

“I will use the one- the one in my room.” Spock mentally cursed himself and walked to the bathroom that was joined to the room he’d slept in.

Scotty just shook his head and talked to Leonard in the way his mother often talked to him. “Boys, eh? To think they’ve hardly changed at all. How you’re going to put up with them in the future I’ll never know.” Leonard just blinked up at him, feeling safe around the soft, kind voice. The accent amused him too, and every time Scotty would make an unusual sound around a word, Leonard smiled wider, fascinated with them. It was like listening to the songs his Mama put on when they had to go in the truck, but without tune and with emotions instead.

“Mama.” Leonard input, pointing at Scotty. _You must be the Mama of this place_ , McCoy reasoned. Only his Mama could control the other, littler people around him that were bigger than he was with high voices, like Spock and… Jam? His Mama was also the only adult that talked to him like that, like he wasn’t little, and his Mama always had everything under control. Therefore, this person must be his new, temporary Mama. “Mama.” He confirmed to himself, when he had failed to get a response, and nodded.

“If you say so, wee man. I think it’s time we got you cleaned and changed for the day, hm?” Leonard didn’t know what was being asked of him, and just stared innocently up at Scotty in response, to which the engineer smiled softly and picked him up.

When all three boys were cleaned and changed and fed, Scotty took them to the Bridge, where the crew were mostly milling about while the ship was still stuck above the planet they had been involved in the diplomatic mission on. At current, they were discussing the possibility of taking the ship down to the planet, to which M’Benga argued that there was no way that was happening with all of the unknown substances that people would do doubt consume. He was going to go into a rant when Scotty walked in, the two older boys trailing behind him while Leonard was in his arms. “Is that Doctor McCoy?” M’Benga asked, trying not to squeal.

“The one and only.” Scotty replied, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He’d been up most of the night modifying their uniforms to make them more comfortable, and every time he moved, McCoy shifted, so he’d had to be slow and careful. Then he’d had to wake up early, because he knew Spock would be up, and now he was a little bit exhausted.

“Can I hold him?”

Scotty nodded in lieu of a verbal response and M’Benga was over there in seconds, cooing over the boy in his arms. Leonard yawned a little, and his eyes fluttered with his morning tiredness starting to kick in, but found comfort in the oddly spoken ‘baby talk’ he was so often witness to. The man’s uniform and the equipment he held reminded him of his Daddy, which made him more comfortable in M’Benga’s hold. He tried to stick to consciousness but then he was slowly being rocked and his teddy suddenly felt much softer as he cradled it between himself and M’Benga’s chest with one arm. He was sleeping in seconds under the man’s careful ministrations and M’Benga could feel the drool wetting his blue shirt, but was far too busy fussing over how adorable Leonard’s tiny hands were as one of them clutched onto him, and how adorable his chubby cheeks were to care. He reached into his pocket and brought out a little dummy in plastic that he unwrapped and put in Leonard’s mouth when he started to mouth at the fabric on M’Benga’s shirt. The scene proved far too cute for the bridge crew not to aww at and coo over, and Scotty found himself glad that he didn’t have to worry about dropping Leonard in his tired state for a little while.

Spock, noticing Scotty’s tiredness, made his way over to Chekov and climbed up onto his knee, trusting that the young man knew how to entertain him. Jim, however, was pacing endlessly and huffing every five seconds. “I’m bored!” He moaned, and Sulu turned to him.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“Mommy takes me to the park sometimes, but I don’t suppose there’s a park on a space ship, huh?”

“No I’m afraid not, but we do have a gym.”

“That’s lame! You’re lame!” Jim complained, and Sulu frowned, offended.

“Don’t insult Mr Sulu, Jim. He’s simply trying to help you.” Spock insisted.

“What are you doing?” Jim asked him.

“I am letting Chekov explain how-“

“That’s boring! There’s nothing to do!”

“How about we watch some cartoons?” Sulu asked, and Chekov turned to him.

“Ve have cartoons?” He asked with genuine excitement.

“What’s a cartoon?” Spock asked. “Mother mentioned them but father thought they were not appropriate for Vulcan culture.”

“You’ve never seen cartoons?” Jim asked, incredulous. “Sulu, make it happen.” He ordered, jumping up onto the Captain’s chair. Then he pressed his favourite button and spoke to the rest of his crew. “Can my reliable candy ensign please bring as many blankets as possible. And lots of candy. Captain Jim out.”

Uhura laughed at Jim’s antics, shaking her head, while Sulu got cartoons to play where the bridge usually accepted video calls. Chekov then dimmed the lights at Jim’s request and settled into his seat to watch Sulu’s cartoon films about a Great Dane solving crime with his friends. It was actually quite amusing, and he found himself even laughing along at points.

About 15 minutes into the first cartoon, the blonde ensign from before and a couple more came in to distribute blankets and candy to everyone on the bridge. Uhura accepted both to keep in Jim’s good graces but kept her eye on communications in case anything new popped up, but knew it was unlikely. They had been informed by the medical staff that the three boys would be back to normal as soon as the substance wore off, and after a report had been sent to Starfleet the crew had nothing to do but wait. She figured a few cartoons wouldn’t be the worst use of this time, considering it had mostly been spent thus far with arguments and bored pacing.

Jim was curled up on the Captain’s chair with the blanket up to his chin while his little body shook with laughter. He looked over at Spock with Chekov and found that the other boy was similarly amused and shaking with silent laughter at the stupid antics of the characters on screen. “Spock! There’s room on the chair for two you know… If you want?” He added shyly, unsure of how Spock would react after he’d shouted this morning.

“I would like to sit with you, Jim.” Spock said, nodding to Chekov and walking to Jim before joining him on the chair under the blanket with a bowl of popcorn between them. Jim curled up against Spock, clinging to his arm and laying his head on the other boy’s shoulder while they both found the cartoons progressively more amusing.

After a while, Jim found himself just as sleepy as Leonard in the low lighting and ended up taking a nap snuggled against Spock, who was influenced mentally by Jim’s tiredness due to their closeness and ended up sleeping while leaning against Jim too. They were sleeping peacefully for about half an hour, Jim drooling on Spock, when the cartoon ended and the crew turned to the boys to ask what they’d be watching next, unaware they’d fallen asleep, and were faced with a different Captain and First Officer that they’d been faced with that morning…


	10. Grow up

In fact, the crew thought they’d never been faced with such a difference in demeanour from the two. They were… Calm. Calm, and quiet, and smiling in their sleep. Jim and Spock often indulged in flirting on the bridge, that much was true, but Spock always remained stoic and appropriate, leaving the affection to Jim, and often Leonard too. Yet, there Spock was, his head resting on Jim’s and holding his hand softly while he slept against the other boy. The crew had to supress their _aww_ ’s at the boys and simply turned to the screen again, actually enjoying the ancient relic that was Sulu’s chosen cartoon dog and friends.

Through the hectic labyrinth Jim’s dream had turned his mind into, Spock found himself wandering aimlessly alongside Jim’s dream version of himself. It seemed that today, Jim’s dream space was about him solving riddles in order to get to his prize, which was likely Leonard again, as he was not currently present. After a few fairly difficult solves, considering he was in a human 5 year old’s mind, he wandered into a corridor opposite Jim and found himself somewhere separate to Jim’s dream altogether. If he remembered correctly from his Vulcan teachings, Spock had wandered into Jim’s subconscious.

There were bright lights that danced around the atmosphere, similar to the way smoke permeated the air in sight. Each colour represented emotions, Spock knew, and each colour was situated everywhere, interlaced with each other, in indeterminable categories that it seemed only Jim would be able to decipher. When Spock had visited his own subconscious, he found emotions too, though they were less vivid from suppression and his main focus was knowledge. Jim’s mind, however, wrapped these two things together. A wisp of red drew Spock’s attention, and he put his hand out, almost feeling the emotive strand run through his fingers like water, and was greeted with the sight of a scene playing before him of a woman being struck by a man on a TV screen, and Spock realised Jim’s associated emotion was anger. He then noticed the different toys and objects around the TV and noted that Jim was likely to be very much younger than currently, and was surprised to see such a deep emotional understanding in such a young human being. The memory then whisked past and Spock was enveloped in a grey memory of Jim holding a physics book in his little hands, and Spock easily recognised this emotion as bored. This only lasted for a second though, before bright white dispersed over the memory, alerting Spock to Jim’s sudden recognition and understanding of the information in front of him in diagram form from his mother’s physics book. That only lasted a while, however, because once Jim had figured out the systematics of the physics, his mind wandered and he needed something new to figure out, so discarded the book, and his boredom with it. This carried on for a while until they both slowly woke up to cartoons still playing on the bridge, and Scotty offering them dinner.

They graciously accepted in silence, too tired to offer any thanks until they properly woke up, and by that point they had simply gone back to watching the cartoons, which were now about a little blue alien and his owner, a little girl. Jim seemed to find this particularly amusing, as he probably could relate to the blue alien causing trouble all the time. He turned to the side to see what Leonard was doing and found the baby fully awake and enraptured by a flashing light on a console while still in M’Benga’s arms, who was petting the boy’s hair softly, an empty bottle now attached to his belt. Leonard was trying to reach out to the light, but couldn’t touch it from his current height, and was getting visibly frustrated, though M’Benga couldn’t understand why because the light was behind him. Spock got up from the chair, Jim not minding because of his interest in the screen, and walked over to M’Benga holding his arms out in a silent plea to hold the boy. M’Benga nodded and reluctantly handed him over, to which Leonard laughed delightedly, the sound muffled by his dummy. He hadn’t seen Spock in a while. His interest in the light was momentarily forgotten while he grabbed at the Vulcan’s ears again, so Spock just walked over to where Mr Scott was sat on the floor and sat down on the engineer’s blanket with him, Leonard on his knee with his attention now directed towards the screen, still clinging to Spock’s old toy.

After a while, Spock saw Jim start to fidget and knew the boy had lost interest in the show. His suspicions were confirmed when Jim ordered Sulu to stop the film. “Listen up, crew. We’ve had a good time watching stuff together for a while, but I think it’s time for a change.” He gave a quick glance to everyone in the room then continued speaking. “Mr Scott and Spock, you look after my Lenny, everyone else gather the blankets and someone go get pillows. We’re making a fort!” Collective noises of excitement and agreement sounded around the room, and Jim stood pleased with himself.

The chaos that ensued in fort building, however, was unexpected and Jim was very amused by it. Sulu had fallen over four separate times, dragging Chekov down for two of them before the Russian has wised up and kept out of his way. Uhura had, for all her smarts, no idea how to keep the blanket up, and M’Benga wasn't much better at helping her. Jim was in his forte, so to speak, having been making forts with Sam since he could remember, and knew just where to hang up the fabrics and the best placements of the comfiest pillows, which he gave mostly to Spock, Leonard and Mr Scott, his makeshift space family.

When they were done, a good hour and a half later, the crew were surprised by their teamwork and impressed with their imperfect bridge-wide fort. Everyone sat down on their mountains of pillows, sharing snacks and jokes while Sulu put the films back on and Jim sat down between Spock and Scotty. After leaving his teddy in the safe and trustworthy arms of his new Mama, Leonard rolled over to him, giggling, and he amused the boy with silly sounds and tickles, amusing him to no end. Then, Leonard shuffled over to him, gripped the material on his leg and pulled himself up with all his strength so he was standing on his tiny, shaking legs. Jim was ecstatic.

“Did you see that? He’s standing, look! Whose a clever boy?” He directed at Leonard and the whole crew turned to watch.

Leonard let go of Jim slowly and balanced for a few seconds then fell straight back down on to his behind, laughing at himself. The crew found, inexplicably, that they were very proud of their little doctor for this little feat.

Jim then helped him back to his feet and held his arms out, to which Leonard took a small step forward, holding still to keep balance, then took another, then another, then fell into Jim’s hold, smiling. There were small rounds of applause from the crew and Leonard found himself copying the action and clapping, though his soft little hands made no noise.

As long as Sulu kept changing what the crew were watching, Jim, Spock and Leonard were content to play like this all day, until there was a transmission stating that a visitor would be coming aboard to check on his son after reading a report sent from the Enterprise. Sarek was on his way, having started travelling the day the first report had been sent, and Uhura was the one who’d had to tell Spock, and watch the boy immediately encompass himself in the emotionless façade everyone had gotten used to not seeing on the child. It was heart-breaking, really, to watch Spock’s expression harden into uncaring whenever anybody spoke to him. He’d even ceased playing with Leonard, which upset the child greatly because he’d gotten used to his Spock. Jim was upset too, but was definitely not going to start getting angry and crying in front of Leonard, he had an example to set after all, so he handed the baby over to Scotty in order to cross his arms and sulk.

As soon as Sarek set foot onto the bridge, accompanied by an ensign and Uhura, Spock stood ram-rod straight and nodded a welcome to his father, respectfully. “I am here to see my son is safe. I do not have much time at the present moment and have gone out of my way to arrive here. Once I am absolutely assured of he, and his mates’, safety I shall return back to my business elsewhere.” Sarek informed Uhura. Jim didn’t like the look of him, and stood behind Scotty, who’d grown protective of the small lad and let him hide. Leonard, however, did not seem to sense the tense nature of the room and was simply confused because as far as he could tell, there was now a much bigger Spock on board, and where Spock was, it was safe, even if he didn’t want to play with him anymore. “Pock!” Leonard shouted, letting the dummy fall out of his mouth and pointing at Sarek, who raised an eyebrow in amusement, turning to the sound.

“I take it this is Leonard McCoy?” Sarek asked Scotty, who nodded. Normally, he would have been a little scared of the Vulcan ambassador, but he had kids now and he had to put them first- _Jesus Christ what had the little devils done to him?_ “May I hold him?”

Scotty gave him a wary look but answered, “aye,” and handed the boy over gently, who gave the big Spock a questioning look before grabbing at the Vulcan’s face, who evaded the touches as gently as he could, leaving McCoy to pull at his uniform sleeves instead, attracted by the shiny colours in the fabric. Sarek huffed something that was almost a laugh and turned to Spock. “I remember when you were this young. Your brother would look at me the exact same way you are now, and I would be forced to remind him that just because I am currently giving attention to another child, I do not love you any less.”

Spock seemed surprised at the admission, and it showed, albeit reluctantly, in his expression. Sarek felt his heart sink when he remembered how Vulcan he had tried to make Spock at this age, after his brother had swayed from Vulcan ways. He kneeled down and motioned for Spock to come to him, which he did, slowly and cautiously, and Sarek hugged him with his free arm, the same way Amanda had told him to when Spock had actually been this small. Spock stood stock still, a little frightened and Sarek gave a remorseful sigh. “I am sorry I have inflicted upon you so many pressures, Spock. Enjoyment is key to a human child, and as you are half human, I should have respected that. Forgive me.”

“I forgive you, father.” And Sarek felt that the boy really meant it, and he almost smiled because of it. When Spock had actually been this young, Sarek would not have said such a thing, for he would not have known the Vulcan his son would become and how his emotions would help rather than hinder him. Now he knew that his son, despite everything, had always been as caring as his mother, and that made him more proud than anything. Leonard, however, felt none of this, and was getting bored in the middle of the embrace, so tugged at little Spock’s ear and demanded with a grunt to be held, to which Sarek laughed and handed the boy over.

As soon as he was back in Spock’s hold, he huffed and motioned to be put down, but as soon as Spock sat him on the floor, he lifted himself up with a tight grip on Spock’s legs and stood up, wobbling slightly before turning around, leaning against Spock, then let go, and walked towards Sarek as quickly as he could without falling over, and did his little soundless clap when he reached his destination, which prompted claps from the rest of the crew.

While Leonard was busy being entertained by Sarek, who, it seemed, was really good with babies, Jim sidled up to Spock. “You never told me you had a brother.”

“It did not seem relevant.”

“But I want to know everything about you. You’re my reserve husband, remember?”

“I only remember you being married to Leonard.”

“Yeah, well you’re second in line. Like, you’re a prince and I’m the crown.”

“So, we are married?”

“Damn right!”

“Don’t say ‘damn’ Jim, it’s a bad word.” Scotty admonished and Jim nodded, taking Spock’s hand in his, to reveal to the Vulcan that there was no remorse at the use of Jim’s language, but a sense of glee at having Spock’s hand in marriage, which in turn made the Vulcan smile.

“Father?” Spock stole Sarek’s attention away from where it had been focussing on Leonard and his curiosity. “Would you like to sit in our fort?” He asked, feeling both foolish and hopeful at the same time.

“I would be honoured.” Sarek said with a nod and sat down with Jim and Spock on Scotty’s blanket, Leonard on his knee. “Spock?”

“Yes, father?”

“I am very proud of you, for being brave and doing as I tell you. However, you will never get these youthful days back, and it would be best, in my opinion, that you use this time wisely and experience it how you wish, not how I wish.” The words were difficult for Sarek to admit, and they reminded him of how he would be chastised by Amanda for treating their son like a normal Vulcan child. He had only ever wanted to protect Spock from the cruelty a hybrid Vulcan would face, but he knew now that when it was important, Spock could fight for himself, and did not need his father’s protection.

“Thank you.” Spock said quietly, not sure how to react to this sudden change in hid father. The stern man he had known in his childhood seemed to have gotten almost kinder in his old age, and Spock once again found himself filled with warmth at the idea that those around him ended up loving him for who he was, not who he was trying to be. He squeezed Jim’s hand tighter as he felt a tear roll down his cheek. Jim noticed and pushed Spock’s head to his shoulder, misinterpreting the happy tears for sad ones, and shielding Spock’s face from Sarek as Jim had seated himself between the two.

“Don’t worry.” Jim whispered, thinking he was being quiet, but not taking into account Vulcan hearing. “I won’t let him see you cry. I don’t like people seeing me cry, either. Mommy’s new boyfriend says that crying is for girls, but I don’t think he’s right. I once saw him cry because his team lost a football game, and even if crying was for girls I don’t think that would be so bad. I like girls.”

“If you like girls,” Spock said, distracted from the reason of his tears, much to Sarek’s surprise and amusement, “why did you marry me?”

“Don’t be silly, Spock. I mean, I like-like girls, sure, but I like-like boys too. That’s different see because like-like is how Mommy likes her boyfriend, and I think I’d be okay with having one of those, as long as he isn’t like Mommy’s. If he was like you I wouldn’t mind, but mommy says I’m only five so I’m not allowed one yet. She says when I’m 32 I can, if you’ll wait?” Sarek was impressed by the young Jim's ability to completely understand his surroundings and analyse them to his own thinking pattern, especially at his young age.

Spock lifted his head to look at Jim, then smiled brightly, something Sarek hadn’t seen since Spock was as little as Leonard. He then left a little kiss on Jim’s cheek and hid his face back into Jim’s shoulder to hide his blush. “I will wait for you, Jim.”

“Well, gee, thanks.” Jim said, blushing himself but not bothering to hide it.

Sarek was warmed by the interaction until his attention was pulled back to a very impatient Leonard who was trying to squirm his way to the floor, so Sarek let him, and watched as the boy crawled to Scotty, walking being too exerting it seemed, to get his teddy back. When Sarek saw the teddy, he glanced at Spock, who was looking at him with wide eyes, not sure how his father would react to his sentimentality at the realisation of I-Chaya II still being with him. However Sarek gave the boy a smile and a gentle nod, signalling to the Spock that it was alright, and he need not be worried, and for the first time since he could remember, Spock felt wholly accepted. For the first time ever, he couldn’t wait to grow up.


	11. If I only had a heart

It turned out that, of all the films the crew watched, Jim’s favourite was an ancient film called ‘national treasure’ because he solemnly believed he was as much of a genius and hero as the main character and was able to follow the plot quite clearly, much to Sarek’s shock. He had known that the boy was smart, but to be able to grasp concepts so quickly at such a young age was particularly unusual in the intelligence range of such a young human child. He could see why Spock was fascinated by him.

Much to Sarek’s surprise, Spock’s favourite had been a picture known as ‘the Wizard of Oz’ which had been even older than Jim’s favourite. Jim had made the off-hand comment that the tin man reminded him of Spock, and that Leonard was like the Scarecrow because of how clumsy and dumb he was as a baby. Spock had then said that had Jim been in this scenario he would have been Dorothy, to which Jim was surprisingly delighted, and Spock almost laughed as Jim copied the actions of Dorothy throughout. It seemed that the development of the tin man had also meant more to Spock since Jim had linked them together and he ended up with a tear in his eye when he ended up with emotion and was accepted. Leonard seemed to like that one more too, with the music and bright colours as he was glued to the screen when he wasn’t crawling round Jim and Spock’s legs and baby-talking to his teddy.

At one point, Leonard had made it all the way to Chekov without anyone noticing, until he was making grabby motions at the curly haired man until he was lifted to Chekov’s knee and sat his teddy on Chekov’s other knee so he had two free hands to play with the flashing buttons in front of him, which did nothing as Chekov supervised. When Leonard’s absence had been noted by Scotty, there had been mild panic in the engineer before he had spotted the boy and taken him back, muttering an apology to Chekov and had ended up creating a makeshift playpen with blanket walls for Leonard to crawl around and play in.

By the boys’ bedtime both Spock and Jim were buzzed on the sugar from their movie treats, and Jim was almost vibrating with energy. “Mr Sarek sir can we stay up just a little longer? Please? Pretty please?”

“The visual concept of the ‘please’ does not help your case, James. You may not stay up any longer. It is already too late for boys your age to be up. You are lucky to have stayed up for this long.” Sarek responded, amused.

“Father.” Sarek looked down to where Spock was tugging the material on his leg. “I, too, would like to stay awake longer.”

The older Vulcan almost gave in to Spock’s pleading look before Jim added. “Scotty would let us stay up!” To which there was an immediate response from the engineer himself.

“Scotty would no such thing ye lyin’ little devil. Come on now, both of you to bed!” And then the boys were being handed pyjamas to change into in the bathroom while Scotty stood outside with Sarek.

“A handful aren’t they?” Scotty asked the Vulcan, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Scotty never noticed though, because he was more focused on a sleeping Leonard in his arms. He had lost his grip on I-Chaya II while he slept, so Scotty was holding that in his free hand, and smiled warmly at Leonard while he slept. “Would do anything for ‘em though.” Sarek knew that even though humans had quite the reputation for dishonesty, Scotty was absolutely telling the truth.

“They will grow up very soon, Mr Scott.”

“I know that.” Scotty sighed. “But it’s nice while it lasts, isn’t it?”

“You would make a brilliant father.”

“You think so?” Scotty asked, smiling as Leonard started snoring lightly into his chest. “Aye, maybe. I don’t think I’d be able to leave my ship though. Wouldn’t be fair to bring a wee Scotty into this universe knowing full well I that if space called, I’d answer. Do you know what I mean?”

“Absolutely.” Sarek stared at the floor, feeling a deep sense of guilt overcome him once again. He had let Spock’s childhood years slip by because of his reluctance to let his work come second in his priorities, and he’d never regretted anything more.

Scotty noticed the downcast look and was about to reassure the Vulcan when Jim and Spock returned ready for bed, Jim with little rockets on his pyjamas and Spock with little cars. Sarek almost smiled, thinking about the many times Amanda had insisted on putting Spock in human children’s clothing. It seemed that being with the humans had had an influence on Spock, because when Jim walked to Scotty’s side, significantly more tiredly subdued than he had been previously, Spock went to Sarek and hugged his legs. Sarek didn’t know what to do at first and was especially lost when he heard little uncharacteristic sniffles coming from the boy. He was still for a moment before he kneeled down and picked Spock up, hugging him as he stood.

“What’s wrong, Spock?” He asked softly, though he guessed the boy had crashed from his sugar high and this weakness in his system had caused his emotional guards to weaken also, meaning his body wasn’t allowing him to keep his emotions at bay, even from Sarek, for which the older Vulcan was almost grateful, having never had a chance to properly comfort his son without him pretending to be the stoic Vulcan Sarek had trained him to be.

“I miss mother.” Spock admitted. “I have not gone this long without seeing her since I can remember, and I miss her.” Scotty heard this and nodded to Sarek, taking Jim with him to the bedroom so that the father and son could have a moment of privacy.

Sarek realised that Spock had not yet known anything but life with his mother at this point, as she had been determined to protect him at all times. “She misses you too.” Sarek settled for. “We both do, when you’re not there.”

“You do not.” Spock said, with certainty. “You do not care for me the way mother cares for me. She says different, but I know. I know I you are ashamed of me because I am not fully Vulcan and I try to be-“ His breath hitched, and Sarek was devastated by the sound. “But when I try to be Vulcan it upsets mother. She says she will love me no matter what, but you are always indifferent.” Spock clung to Sarek’s clothes as he cried harder, and Sarek simply held him tighter, using one hand to rub up and down his back in a soothing motion.

“I care for you more than anything in this universe, Spock. I am and will be proud of you no matter how you choose to live your life, and I love you. You are my son, and you mean everything to me. More than my work, and more than my reputation. Nothing makes me happier in this life than to see you happy. Do you understand that?”

Spock looked up at him with tears still in his eyes and nodded slowly, then smiled and hugged Sarek tighter before relaxing in his arms. “Are you going back home tonight?”

“Unfortunately I must. I will see you to bed first, but I will come back for you. I will always come back for you.” Spock nodded, and rested his cheek against Sarek’s chest before drifting off into sleep there.

The older Vulcan smiled and carried Spock to the bedroom behind Scotty, where he laid the boy in bed next to a now sleeping Jim, with his mouth open and drooling on the pillow. He gently kissed Spock’s forehead before straightening up and following Scotty and Leonard out of the room.

“Thank you. For allowing me that time with my son.” Sarek said to Scotty once they were out of the room.

“Aye, well, the lad needed it I think.”

“I must take my leave now that I am certain of Spock’s safety.”

Scotty nodded in understanding and first set about putting Leonard in his cot, his teddy under his arm and wrapped warmly in his blanket, dummy in his mouth. He then led Sarek to the door of the quarters and asked if he could navigate his way to the transporter pad, not willing to leave the troublesome children by themselves, to which the Vulcan nodded, sure of himself and confident in Scotty’s ability to look after his son. He may not have been the most supportive family for Spock in his childhood, but Sarek knew that the family he had aboard the enterprise was everything Spock had ever wanted and needed, and for that he would always be grateful to the crew.


	12. All good things

Jim woke up slowly to the very strong smell of coffee and a pounding headache. He instinctively stretched his arm forward, but instead of finding McCoy in the middle of him and Spock as usual, his hand made contact with only Spock’s warm, soft skin. He groggily opened his eyes and grimaced at the offensive bright light of the room. He hadn’t remembered getting drunk, but he certainly felt as if he had a hangover and assumed Leonard was making the coffee. When his blurry vision cleared up to see Spock, he managed a tired smile. The Vulcan may have looked put together during the day, but couldn’t keep control of all his nightly movements, making certain that his hair was always wildly messed up. 

The moment of quiet appreciation slipped away quickly, however, when Spock woke up and gave an uncharacteristic groan of pain, his first few seconds of consciousness being out of his control.

“Good morning.” Jim said softly, patting down a few errand, raven strands of hair.

“It seems,” Spock’s voice was rough with sleep, but still soothing to Jim’s headache, “that the pain in your head is so prominent that it has travelled through our bond and woken me up.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” Jim apologised somewhat sincerely, kissing Spock’s forehead lightly.

“It is unusual.” Spock paused to stifle a yawn, much to Jim’s amusement, and then continued. “Leonard normally sleeps past this pain, and counteracts it so that my mind is at peace.”

“Mhmm that so?” Spock nodded, his eyes still shielding his vision from the too-bright light. “Wonder what inspired our big ol’ teddy bear to get up so early anyhow.”

“He resents that term of endearment.”

“Likes it a whole lot better than ‘plum’.”

“Understandable.” Spock groused, finally opening his eyes, but only minutely. “We should check on him, his footsteps are abnormally light this morning.”

“That’s creepy, Spock.”

“My hearing range is-“

“I’m not saying your anatomy is weird, I’m saying the fact you know him purely from his footstep _in another room_ is creepy.”

Spock frowned. “I do not think it should be classified as unnerving to have alternate ways of identifying my mates when not every sense is available. I can detect you and Leonard many different ways, including scent, breathing patterns-“

“What do I smell like?” Jim interrupted.

“It is difficult to describe in human terms, but I believe it is very distinctive. It is sweet, like the confectionary you often indulge yourself with when you think Leonard is not looking. It is a pleasant scent, most of the time, and is made distinctly your own with the lingering cologne and Leutenant Uhura’s shampoo-“

“Hey! It makes it silkier and gives it shine.” He sulked and buried his face into Spock’s chest. “Don’t think I don’t know you don’t use it from time to time.”

Spock chose to ignore the accusation and instead lifted the covers of their bed so he could go and see if Leonard and his light footsteps were a cause of concern. He got up, completely naked, not noticing the small, ripped clothes in the bed with his still pounding head, and ignored Jim’s whining protests.

He opened their bedroom door gently and walked into the living room to find… “Mr Scott?”

Scotty looked up from where he was sat at the kitchen table with a coffee, and was now pointedly avoiding looking at Spock’s naked form. “Aye, well, glad to see you’re back to normal."

“Where is Leonard?” Spock asked, choosing to focus on the location of his mate rather than asking why he hadn’t been ‘normal’ before.

“Still sleeping, though he’s a wee bit different than you’re used to.” Scotty said, standing up and walking over to the crib, and sighing. “Look whose back.”

Spock walked over, unconcerned with his casual nudity, and looked down into the crib to find a small child of around 4 in a tight baby onesie, though the child was small enough for it not to be bursting at the seams.

“Guess I’ll have to get him ready.” Scotty gently picked the boy up, and cradled him to his chest as the boy slept through it. “I don’t mean to sound rude Mr Spock, but I would prefer it if you went and put some clothes on. I’ll take care of the wee man don’t you worry.”

Spock was about to argue that the small boy couldn’t possibly be Leonard but then the memories of the past few days seemed to rush into him all at once and he simply nodded, going back to the bedroom to absorb the information.

When he got there, he saw Jim clutching his head in both hands and taking deep breaths to try and lessen the pain caused by the onslaught of memory.

“Oh God, I proposed to an ensign.”

“You were a child, Jim. You also managed to break three plates, a lamp, and a small table while having a tantrum at the loss of Leonard.” Spock recalled, utterly amused but not showing it.

“Uhura was so mad. God, I bet there’s pictures."

"I spoke to my father." Spock said, and Jim's humorous attitude sobered up immediately.

"What happened?"

"He asked me to forgive him, and I did. I felt his love for me, Jim. I have never done that before. It was surreal, but I finally know what mother meant when she said he cared for me. He loves me the way Captain Pike loved you."

"How do you feel about that?"

"Relieved, mostly, but also warmed. I struggled, as a child, to understand social dynamics. These past few days I have felt more clearly than I ever had as a child, and it was unusual, yet completely normal at the time. I realise, now, that I am happier and far more accepted in my adult life than I had ever hoped to be and this experience has led me to understand that I am so sincerely grateful to you and Leonard or what you have given me. Thank you, Jim."

Jim felt like he was going to cry at the admission and wanted to hug Spock and never let the little precious vulcan go, but instead chose to keep his distance, knowing that such an admission was difficult for Spock and he didn't want to ruin the moment. "You'll have to tell Bones that when he gets back to us. That'll just about make his heart melt, trust me, I know. You're a real romantic at heart, Spock, anyone ever tell you that?"

"Leonard has directed the phrase at me multiple times, however I doubt the sincerity of the words, as he uses a sarcastic tone so often it is difficult to discern when he is not using it."

"Where _is_ Bones?”

“It seems he ingested more of the youth inducing agent than both of us, and is still experiencing the effects.” Spock explained. “We must get into clothes while Mr Scott deals with Leonard.”

“Sounds fair.” Jim agreed.

They got ready as quickly as possible, into the uniforms that had been hanging in their wardrobe since before the diplomatic mission. When they got out, Leonard had been clothed and fed, and was wearing the washed little uniform he had before, having been fond of how soft and comfortable the fabric was. He was sitting at the table with Scotty, on top of a few pillows so he could reach the table surface, where his juice was. When he turned and saw Jim and Spock, he jumped from his chair and pulled on Scotty’s hand so he would get up, and then got Scotty to pick him up. Scotty seemed to automatically pander to the boy and held him protectively, which clearly gave Leonard a small comfort in his moment of fear. “Who’re they?” The boy asked quietly, nervously.

Jim squealed almost unperceptively quiet at how cute his little Bones was in his tiny uniform with his stuffed toy and his wide eyes and his messy, slightly curly hair all mussed, and his big chubby cheeks and Jim knew he was going to be under the little boy’s thumb from that very moment.

“That’s Jim and Spock.”

“No they ain’t. Jim and Spock are only small, like me. They’re my friends.” He kept the same quiet voice and concerned tone, believing only Scotty could hear him.

“It is us, Leonard.” Spock assured. “We are just older, because of the distortion of-“

“Because of science.” Jim explained, as simply as he saw fit.

“I don’t like you.” Leonard informed Jim, then, “neither of you. _You_ ain’t my Jim,” he pointed to the Captain, then the Vulcan, “and _you_ ain’t my Spock!” He then turned back to Scotty. “What’s happened to _my_ Jim and Spock? Where _are_ they?” Leonard then just hugged I-Chaya II to his chest and Scotty could see the sadness in the little boy’s expression. “Do they not like me any more?”

“Hey, do you trust me Len?” Scotty asked and McCoy nodded. “Those two men are Spock and Jim, I promise. They still like you.”

“You really mean it?”

“I really mean it. I’m an engineer and I’m very smart. I wouldn’t lie to you, would I?” Leonard shook his head, then looked at Spock and Jim, who were waiting patiently, Jim looking particularly wounded by Leonard’s rejection. Spock, however, looked as emotionless as always.

“Scotty?”

“Aye?”

“Can we go? Please?” McCoy seemed to be more frightened of the expressionless Vulcan than anything and avoided looking in his direction. How could _his_ Spock possibly look so cold? He didn’t want to believe that the little boy he had befriended had become so scarily neutral. Before, _his_ Spock would have greeted him properly, hugged him maybe, or even smiled, but this Spock wouldn’t go anywhere near him, and seemed ok with that.

Being a very physical being, relying on praise and comforting touches, McCoy was scared by the stoic Vulcan, but why would Scotty lie to him? He could trust Scotty. McCoy didn’t want to risk upsetting the so-called Spock, so decided that the best thing he could do was leave, and stay safe with his guardian.

Scotty sighed but nodded, and headed out to engineering, apologising to Jim and Spock before going.

As soon as they were in the lift heading down to where Scotty worked, Leonard was back to his usual self, chatting incessantly while Scotty nodded along tiredly. The whole crew had gotten used to the children now, and things were going to be relatively back to normal with the addition of the Captain and Science Officer, so Scotty went back to fixing things like he usually did, with Leonard sat on top of some metal boxes, watching him work. He was wearing little goggles that protected his eyes from the tools Scotty was using and he was quite entertained by Keenser showing him how to fix small things. He’d been afraid of Keenser at first, but quickly learned that the little alien was harmless, and rather funny.

He’d been in the middle of putting a little panel together when Jim visited the three, bearing sweets and toys. Since the boy had looked so scared that morning, Jim had been feeling guilty and wanted to make it up to him, believing that Leonard’s fear was because of him. Bones had never been afraid of Spock, seemed to find him funny if anything, so it must have been Jim. “Hey there, Len. Thought you might be getting a bit bored down here with Scotty so I brought you some things.”

Leonard eyed him carefully, lifting up his goggles so that a little red imprint stayed around his eyes. “Mama says it ain’t nice to call people names. Scotty ain’t boring. But thank you.” He reached his little hand out to get a lollypop from Jim and took the plastic off the top while talking. “My Daddy gives me one of these if I behave all good when he’s doctorin’. I like the red ones the best.” He tasted the sweet and nodded in approval. “What happened to you, Jimmy?” McCoy asked, a little sadness in his tone that wrapped around Jim’s heart and squeezed. He wasn’t afraid of Jim, he just missed his old friend.

“I just got older, that’s all.” He sat next to Leonard on the boxes and the boy accepted his company, even if Keenser kept a wary eye on him.

“But you’ve got a scratchy face now.” Leonard rubbed his hand over Jim’s stubble. “ _My_ Jimmy didn’t have that.”

“That’s what happens when you get older. You’ll have it some day too.” Jim laughed when Leonard made a face at that, but the boy seemed to get over it quickly.

“Well, it doesn’t matter all that much really. If you’re really my Jimmy… Do you want to play?”

“I’d love to. What are we playing?” Leonard lit up at that, and Jim knew that he actually believed him.

“I was just fixin’ stuff with Mister Keenser, but we can go play somewhere safer with little cars? You used to like those the most, cars and spaceships. We can’t do that here though, because Scotty’s workin’ and he does important stuff.” Scotty smiled proudly at that, and Jim rolled his eyes.

“Alright. How about you and me go to the bridge? Spock’s there too. We can all play together.” Jim said hopefully, but Leonard just shook his head, his shyness coming back at the mention of Spock, and shuffled until he was closer to Keenser than Jim.

“Mama said not to wander off with strangers. I can’t go if Scotty doesn’t go.”

“Well, Scotty would have been a stranger if you hadn’t wandered off with him first. Scotty can tell you I’m safe. I won’t hurt you. Can’t you Scotty?”

The engineer turned to the Captain and looked him up and down, as if considering. He was enjoying having the upper hand, Kirk could tell. “I suppose.” He removed his goggles and stood up so he was eye-level with McCoy and picked him up from the metal boxes. “I can guarantee nothing will happen to you with Jim, and if it does, I’ll knock him clean out, alright?” McCoy smiled and nodded happily, then Scotty handed him over to Jim. “Just have him back by 8 and dinnae give him too much sugar. And as for you,” Scotty turned his attention to McCoy, and handed him Keenser’s communicator, “you get in touch with me if you need to.”

Kirk gasped, offended. “Nothing’s going to happen to him while I’m looking after him.”

“I know that Jim, but it’ll make him feel better.” Scotty assured, and Jim accepted the answer while Leonard giggled at how child-like Jim still was.

“Come on then, Jimmy!” Leonard said impatiently. “Let’s go play! But make sure to pick up my teddy.”

Jim smiled at the boy as he dragged a toy car across his chest. “Alright, we’re going!” And then he was off, the small boy in his arms laughing as he was bounced up and down while Jim ran.

When they got to the lift, McCoy seemed to have gotten shy again, and was clinging to his stuffed toy, which seemed to alleviate some of his anxiety. “Jimmy?”

“Yeah?” Jim answered softly, not wanting to spook the now seemingly-fragile McCoy.

“Spock ain’t gonna hurt me, right? Do you promise to protect me if he tries?”

Jim nodded and held McCoy tighter, feeling more protective over McCoy while he was so vulnerable and scared. “He will not and doesn’t want to hurt you, I swear. He might look big and scary but he’s soft really.”

“Like our dog back home? She’s old and has real sharp teeth, but she just likes to cuddle after herdin’ all the sheep. A lot of the other kids are scared of our Spot, but I like her just fine. Is that what it’s like?”

“That’s exactly what it’s like, there’s no need to be afraid of him, you have my word as a Captain.”

“Alright.” McCoy seemed convinced for the time being, but there was no telling how the boy was going to react in real time...


	13. Turbulence

As soon as the two entered the bridge, Jim could see that Spock was relieved to find that Leonard was not too scared to be in the same room as him. The problem, Jim thought, was that _only_ Jim could see that there was a minute change to the Vulcan’s expression. Jim set Leonard down on the floor and the boy immediately ran to Chekov and clung to his leg so he could hide from Spock. “You said he wasn’t gonna be scary!” Leonard complained at Jim. “ _My_ Spock is always at least a little happy to see me. You’re a liar, Jimmy, if that’s even your name!” Leonard then flinched back when Jim stepped forward, and Chekov took pity on the boy, picking him up to put in his lap.

“Keptin, maybe you should give zhe boy some space, da? He is confused, and he just needs to get used to Spock is all.” Chekov then turned his attention to Leonard. “Don’t vorry Mister McCoy, I vas scared of him too, but he’s not zat bad after a while.” The boy nodded at that, amused by the Russian’s accent and slid to the floor. The rest of the crew understood that the boy felt uncomfortable being the centre of attention and pretended to be busy with something else while they listened to the interaction. As McCoy scanned the area for possible escapes, noting the open vent as he did so, he spoke.

“How can I be brave like you, Mister Chekov?” He asked quietly, and Chekov hitched a breath because no one on the ship had ever called him that. Smart, capable, good at his job? Sure, but _brave,_ never, and with such open admiration? God, Chekov wanted to cry. Instead, he just pulled the boy into a hug, and Leonard, though confused, simply hugged back. “I didn’t mean no harm, I swear.”

“No, no, I am happy.”

“Oh. That’s alright then.” The boy pulled away from the hug and took Chekov’s hand. “How do I stop being scared?”

Chekov frowned in thought and then held his hand up to exaggerate him getting an idea. “Zhe best way to overcome fears is to confront zhem!”

McCoy looked sceptical, and turned his gaze to Sulu. “Excuse me Captain Sulu,” Jim rolled his eyes at the name, but Sulu beamed, “you’re a _real_ Daddy ain’t you? I remember you tellin’ me. Now, _my_ Daddy always knows best, and, well, you’re the only real Daddy here so… Do you think Mister Chekov is right?”

Sulu took the question under seemingly serious consideration, which appeased McCoy, and made him believe the pilot’s answer. “Yes, I completely agree with Mister Chekov.”

“Okay.” Sulu smiled at the boy’s acceptance and relaxed into his chair, assured that he was a good father figure after all, if only for a few seconds. McCoy took his hand from Chekov’s and held his stuffed bear tightly to his chest before stepping warily towards Spock. In turn, the Vulcan stayed still, not wanting to spook the child, but the statue-esque nature of the stance only frightened McCoy further and he only made it a few steps closer before dashing to Uhura.

“I can’t do it Miss Uhura!” He then added in a very loud whisper, “what if he eats me or somethin’? Mama wouldn’t be very happy ‘bout that…”

“He’s not gonna eat you, honey.” Uhura assured, and Jim couldn’t help but laugh at Spock’s raised eyebrow of confusion and offense.

McCoy himself didn’t look convinced, and Jim could see his hesitation. Leonard walked a safe distance from Uhura towards Spock, but not within reach, in fact not within reach of anybody, before opening his communication with Scotty. “Mister Scotty, Sir, I think you’re the only one that hasn’t been brain-washed by Mister Spock,” Leonard informed the engineer, keeping a steady gaze on Spock should he try something shifty. “Can I trust him?”

There was a moment of hesitation before Scotty’s voice came through. “Spock? Aye, lad. He’s big and scary on the outside-“

“-but soft in the middle, like Spot.” Leonard recalled his earlier conversation with Jim.

“That’ll be right.” Jim could tell that Scotty new exactly the dog Leonard was talking about, and felt a little hurt that Leonard had trusted the man so utterly and completely, and disregarded Jim like he was a threat of some kind. “I give you my word that Spock won’t hurt you. If he does anything I’ll hunt him down and make him regret it.”

“You sound like my Mama.” Leonard laughed.

“Well, someone’s got to look after out wee Doctor, haven’t they?”

“I suppose. Thank you.” And then he put the communicator in his trouser pocket, straightened his back and walked right up to Spock. “Mr Spock?” He asked, his momentary bravery overpowering his fear.

Spock looked down at the child, then had a quick glance at Jim, who was nodding at him, encouraging him to respond. He looked back down into the wide, questioning eyes of the young Doctor and responded. “Yes, Leonard?”

“You best not be tryin’ to eat me on board this here ship!” Spock looked at the boy with a tilted head to convey his confusion. He, too, remembered having the irrational fear that other beings wished him harm when he was young. As a child, he would hide behind and rely upon his mother to protect him in the same way Leonard relied on Mr Scott. His father had retreated at Spock’s fear, making the boy feel ostracised and unwanted, which is something Spock certainly did not want Leonard to experience. Of course, had his father not done so himself, Spock would have been the same, so he was almost grateful to his father in that moment, for unknowingly teaching him how not to act around children.

“Vulcans do not eat meat. Even if I wanted to, I could not ‘eat you’.”

“Oh.” Leonard’s shoulders slumped as he realised Spock wasn’t really that much of a danger after all. “So what do Vulcans do, then?”

“We are a species of logic, thus we promote the teachings and research of the sciences.”

“Huh.” Leonard did not look impressed and was about to question further when mild turbulence hit and the ground shook beneath them, and Leonard immediately went white as a sheet with fear. With nothing else around them, Leonard clung to Spock’s legs for dear life until the Vulcan picked him up and Leonard felt everything go still, though still saw the crew shaking with the ship when he opened his tightly closed eyes. Even Jim was almost falling over.

As the sight terrified him, he cast his gaze to Spock, whose face remained impassive as his body remained still, holding Leonard tightly and protectively. “Please don’t let me fall, Mister Spock.” Leonard whispered.

“I would not allow that to happen, Leonard. I would defy gravity itself to keep you safe.” And Spock meant it. Should any harm come to this child, Spock would not forgive himself. Neither, he thinks, would the rest of the crew, but in that moment he knew how his father must have felt. All those times he had held Spock when the other young Vulcan boys would try to hurt him, all those times he had protected him against the most minimal of things, including the weather, even the times he had healed Spock and taught him how to do so himself, he did all of this with the knowledge that Spock feared him. The thought that Leonard feared him made his heart swell with unpleasant emotions, made him want to cry because _How could he fear **me**? _ Sarek having tended to him still, and not abandon the illogically frightened boy, was by far the bravest thing he’d done, even if he didn’t know it.

The ship then stopped it’s shaking and the sudden jolt caused Spock to lurch forward a little and Leonard immediately panicked and dropped his teddy. “Let go! Let go of me!” The small boy shouted, as he pushed at Spock’s chest with his free hand and started to hyperventilate. Spock didn’t want to the boy to feel enclosed so he let him down, only for him to sprint towards Jim, before changing his mind because Jim brought him here so he couldn’t be trusted either. Nobody could. He had to get back to Scotty, and at least he knew a way to do that, so he ran towards the vent he’d seen earlier, which was above a panel that he easily climbed to get inside. He crawled further inside, ignoring the voices telling him it was safe and okay to come out because he refused to be fooled again.

 _Why are you so stupid Leonard?_ The voice of his mother rang through his head. _That’s why the other kids don’t play with you no more._ She hadn’t meant to be malicious at the time, she was just mad, not even at Leonard, and she’d apologised later, but the words had stuck with him. Why was he so stupid? He didn’t know, and that frustrated him. He shouldn’t have blindly trusted the man who called himself Jim, and he wouldn’t have been here. _Space is danger and disease_ , his Daddy said, and he was right. What if he’d died just then? Why had the ground been moving? Had they crashed? Where was he?

He was brought out of his panic by a small hand resting over his own and looked up through his tear-filled eyes to see Keenser, kneeling before him in the vent. “Are they gonna shout at me, Mister Keenser?” The little alien shook his head and pointed to where Leonard had come from and the small Doctor looked over, seeing Scotty at the entrance, concern etched into his features. The Scot was speaking words of encouragement to Leonard to coax him out and it was working because Keenser soon had Leonard safely in his arms after helping him out of the vent. Even in the arms of the small engineer’s assistant, Leonard looked tiny, which made the crew feel all the more guilty, and Scotty all the more angry. “Honestly, Jim, you look after him for two minutes-“

“It isn’t my fault we ran into turbulence he’s just a little spooked is all!”

Scotty clearly didn’t think this was a reasonable response and glared at his captain. “Then how did he end up in the vent? _Again?_ I’ve not had him run from me once, Jimmy-boy, it isn’t that hard not to scare the poor wee devil!” He took a little pity in Jim’s pathetically morose expression, but not much. “He is McCoy, of course he is, but he’s just a child. He doesn’t understand that Vulcan’s keep themselves emotionally blank by choice, and he certainly doesn’t understand turbulence!” The engineer then started talking to the rest of the crew. “Did nobody think to explain it to him? You all know he hates being in a space ship, yet nobody thought to say a bit of turbulence was harmless? He’s no stupid, and he was excited to come play with you all. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

The crew all exchanged guilty looks with each other, thoroughly berated by Scotty. Jim took one for the team and spoke quietly, a little bit of shame in his voice. “I’m sorry, Scotty, we all are, we’re just not used to having kids on board and forget that this stuff isn’t second nature to everyone.” Scotty nodded, accepting the apology and Jim chuckled a little. “Had no idea you were such a mother hen.”

“Neither did I, but things happen, don’t they?” Scotty answered and smiled tiredly, not noticing Uhura’s fond smile at the paternal display of Scotty telling everyone off for scaring Leonard. Instead, he put his attention back to the boy and asked, “can you be brave for me?” Leonard nodded with sincerity. “I’m going to give you to Mr Spock, is that alright?” The boy seemed hesitant so Scotty continued as he took him from Keenser. “As I hear it, he kept you safe and still while everything was in chaos is that right?” A small nod. “Well, he might shifted a wee bit but he tried his hardest to keep you safe, and I know he’s nothing to be scared of. Alright?” The boy agreed and soon found himself once again in Spock’s hold.

“Scotty says you’re a good guy, Mister Spock.”

“I am not endeavouring to hurt you, if that is to what he is referring.” Leonard seemed to only understand half of that sentence so in an effort to assure the boy he meant no harm, he handed back his stuffed toy that Leonard had become so attached to. There was unspoken agreement of trust established as McCoy took the teddy and nodded.

Scotty flung his arms up in exasperation and exclaimed. “There! Was that really too hard for you all?” And then was back to engineering after saying goodbye to Leonard and receiving a thankful yet sloppy kiss on the cheek from the young boy. “You be good now.” Scotty warned before the lift doors closed and Leonard promised he would.

As soon as Scotty was gone, Jim hurried over to Spock and Leonard but was stopped by the boy’s complaint. “No, Jimmy! Mama Scotty says you’re irr- ah iris- you ain’t responsible!”

“ _Mama_ Scotty?” Jim asked, amused, and Leonard flushed Scarlet.

“Mister!” Leonard shouted, then looked to Spock for support.

Spock sighed and gave his Captain a long-suffering look. “It is immature to fixate on the mistakes of the Doctor when his speech patterns are not yet developed beyond that of a four year old, Jim.”

Leonard had no idea what the Vulcan had said but the look on Jim’s face told him Spock agreed with him wholeheartedly. For as much as his linguistic ability was slightly more under-developed than Jim or Spock’s had been, his emotional intelligence was far beyond that of either of the other boys, which made him grow up into the overly emotional adult he would soon be again.

“Even now, you’re on his side?” Jim complained. “Honestly, I don’t know why I put up with either of you.”

“Don’t be stupid, Jim. You love us.” Spock supplied.

“Yeah, I know, I didn’t mean it literally, I was just-“

“Is this gonna be what it’s like all the time?” McCoy asked. “Because if it is, I’d much rather go and see my Doctor friends for a while.”

“Don’t like arguing, Buddy?” Jim questioned, amused.

“Fascinating.” Spock observed. “He is so much like he is to be, and yet so dissimilar. How is that, Captain?”

“He’s a kid, Spock! People tend to change a little, I mean- wait, _Captain?_ What happened to ‘Jim’?”

Leonard rolled his eyes at the same time as Spock and tried to shuffle his way out of Spock’s arms but found his efforts unsuccessful. “Leonard, where do you want to go?” Spock asked patiently.

“I want to go to the Doctors. They don’t fight there. They ain’t allowed to in case they upset the patients.” He continued to struggle but found that Spock held him tightly enough to not let him get away, but not too tight that it was painful for him. “If you won’t let me go, you’ll have to take me. Please.” He added the ‘please’ as an afterthought. His Daddy would give him a real telling off if he found out Leonard had not used his gentlemanly manners. For as much as his Daddy was strict, he really wished he could see him about now.

Sensing the change in McCoy’s mood, Spock nodded, telling Jim that he was going to accompany Leonard to med-bay so they could see the Doctors.

“Well, I can help, right? I can-“

“Jimmy.” Leonard said, stopping the Captain’s hopeful babbling. “I know you mean well, but you’re a trouble-maker, and Mama doesn’t like me playing with trouble-makers. And Mr Spock?” The Vulcan looked down at the boy, and Leonard continued. “I’m afraid you’re the same.” Spock seemed affronted by the accusation, but Leonard chose not to notice. “Mister Sulu?”

“Yes?”

“Can you take me instead?” The pilot nodded and smiled warmly, and walked over to Spock to take Leonard to the lift. “Don’t look so sad Jim, and you neither Spock, I’ll be back later. I promise. Bye Miss Uhura and Mister Chekov and everyone else!”

The crew all waved at the little boy, making him blush under the attention but wave back anyway, earning him aww’s and delighted smiles.

As soon as he was gone, Jim to turned to Spock with an expression that conveyed as much shock as Spock was feeling inside but not showing. “Spock, did he just sass us and leave?”

“Indeed, Captain. It turns out Leonard is not so different to his child self after all.”


	14. Oops

“He must be protected at all costs.” Christine rolled her eyes at the dramatics of Doctor M’Benga as the two watched Leonard give a full medical exam to I-Chaya II. 

“I thought you’d say something like that.”

“He’s so small, Chris. Small and not grumpy.”

“Makes a nice change.” She chuckled. “Although I do miss our old Leonard.”

“We all do, but just _look_ at him.” They both looked on at Leonard with a stethoscope barely able to stay around his tiny neck and a white lab coat that was far too big for him over his little uniform with sleeves that gathered at his elbows but kept slipping down. He soon realised that he was being stared at and turned to the source of the attention, and ran to Doctor M’Benga, who was only too happy to pick him up and hug him tight.

“Can we go get ice-cream?” McCoy asked hopefully, giving his best puppy dog eyes, although he needn’t have, with how much M’Benga was under the small boy’s thumb.

“Well, it’s just about lunch time anyway so I don’t see why not.”

Leonard nodded in approval of the observation and chattered incessantly and far too quickly for M’Benga to properly hear on their way to the hall. Once they were inside, M’Benga spotted Jim and Spock sat opposite each other and assumed Leonard would feel comfortable sitting with them, so dropped him off there to go get some strawberry ice cream, as per the boy’s request.

“Oh, so you’re our friend now?” Jim asked Leonard in a teasing voice when the boy kneeled up to be the right height to use the table. He turned his head away from the people already sat there, choosing to opt for the silent treatment. “Oh come on, Lenny.” The boy just crossed his arms and shook his head, opting to wait patiently for Doctor M’Benga to return. From the corner of his eye, he saw a small fruit roll onto the table next to him and turned to find Jim smiling encouragingly at him.

“You tryin’ to sweet talk me with peaches, Jimmy?” He asked, unimpressed, but picked up the fruit anyway and put it in his coat pocket.

“I’m doing no such thing, I promise.” Jim put a hand over his heart to convey his seriousness.

“It ain’t that I don’t like you anymore, but you mean trouble and I ain’t supposed to ‘socciate with trouble. Least that’s what Daddy says.”

Jim sighed. “I’m the Captain of a star ship, Leonard. I’m not allowed to be troublesome.”

“Doesn’t mean you won’t try. Him too.” McCoy nodded his head to Spock.

“What if I promise? What if I pinky swear?” Leonard narrowed his eyes at Jim.

“Do you _promise_ promise to be good?” Spock raised an eyebrow at the repeated word, wondering how that made any difference to how serious Jim’s promise was, but sighed and accepted that it was simply an inexplicable human thing when Jim replied.

“I _promise_ promise.”

“Alright.” McCoy nodded and hooked his little finger with Jim’s to signify their promise and was about to start another conversation with Jim when M’Benga came back with a bowl of soft, pink ice-cream and his attention was immediately taken away from Jim.

“Doctor Geoff?” Jim chuckled at that and M’Benga shot him a glare.

“It’s easier for him to say.” He then looked back to Leonard and smiled. “What would you like?”

The boy handed him the peach from earlier out of his pocket. “Could you cut this up into little squares and put it on my ice-cream like Mama does?”

M’Benga took the peach from him and nodded, proceeding to use a small knife to cut it into small squares.

“I could help.” Jim offered and Leonard rolled his eyes.

“You don’t always have to help, Jimmy. If you want to do somethin’ you could go get some orange juice?”

Jim nodded and was up from the table faster than Leonard could blink and Spock was surprised that Leonard could so easily control those around him because of how adorable they found him.

Leonard got his ice-cream with peaches back as Jim settled back to the table with some juice for the boy and Leonard said his thank-you’s before he tried his frozen, sugary treat and found it very satisfactory. “Mr Spock?” Leonard asked then climbed up onto the table and shoved Spock’s finished salad out of the way so he could sit in front of him with a full spoon of ice-cream. “Would you like to try some?” But before Spock could answer he had a mouthful of peach and strawberry melting in his mouth.

The surprised look on his face must have been amusing because Jim’s laughter burst through the air and even Doctor M’Benga was stifling a chuckle next to him, though he couldn’t quite understand why it was so funny. He reluctantly swallowed the sweetness in his mouth and sent an unimpressed look down at the boy.

“Leonard that was extremely irresponsible.”

“M’Sorry Mr Spock, I just thought-“

“What if I had been allergic? What if I had been someone who didn’t care for your safety and acted out of anger for an intrusion like that?” Spock would have continued to berate the boy had he not seen the child’s quivering bottom lip and seen his eyes fill up with tears. He reached out to comfort the boy but he scooted back towards Jim and fell on the other man’s chest while hyperventilating and sucking in a breath to fuel a silent sob as the tears started running down his cheeks.

“I didn’t mean to, Mister, please don’t give me a beatin’ I just thought you’d like fruit because you don’t eat meat a-and-“ He cut off to take another deep breath and Spock gently tried to reach towards him again only for Leonard to grab onto Jim’s uniform and try to push further away from Spock, resulting in the corner of Jim’s Star Fleet badge to make a small cut in Leonard’s face, though the boy never noticed in his efforts to keep himself out of reach of Spock.

“Don’t let him hit me Jimmy.” Leonard begged, and Spock felt his heart sink and guilt build up in his heart to the point he almost physically felt in pain from it.

“What’d you go and shout at him for, Spock?” Jim asked. “He was only trying to be nice because he trusted you, that’s all. It’s just what human kids do, they share and they try their hardest to be kind. Well, a lot of them anyway.”

“I apologise, Jim. I did not mean-“

“It’s not me you should be apologising to.” Jim interjected, but softly after seeing the devastated look in Spock’s eyes.

“Leonard-“ Spock began but was quickly shut off.

“No! I want my Mama! Where’s my Mama?” McCoy then stood up on Jim’s knees as the Captain held him up so he could see around the hall, looking for a familiar face that he just couldn’t seem to find. “Where is she Jimmy? I wanna go home.”

“I know, buddy. We’re doing our best.”

“Can’t I call her or somethin’?”

“I’ll try my hardest to make that happen, okay?”

McCoy nodded and Jim had never seen so much hope in Leonard’s eyes. _His_ McCoy had talked about his mother often, with a fond tone reserved for those he loved most. If Jim could get in touch with her, that would be the easy part, but convincing her of what had happened to Leonard? Well, difficult would be an understatement. The woman wasn’t exactly known for her acceptance and love of scientific discovery. But, she would definitely try to understand for her son, Jim thought.

“Are you going to eat anything else, Len?” Jim asked, noticing the half melted ice-cream left in the child’s bowl. McCoy shook his head then sat down in Jim’s lap facing the table and took a little carrot of the Captain’s plate and put it in his lab coat for later. Jim chuckled at the strange actions of the Doctor and got up from the table, picking up McCoy and resting him on his hip in the process. “M’Benga, I think he’ll be staying with me for a little while if that’s alright? What do you think, Len? I’ve got access to the whole ship, so what do you want to see?”

Leonard put his hand up to Jim’s ear as he whispered so that Spock wouldn’t be able to follow them. “I wanna see some animals.”

Jim made a confused face for a second, then knew exactly what McCoy would love and nodded to Leonard, tapping his nose to get across to the little boy that he would keep Leonard’s wish a secret. He then turned his attention back to the other two at the table and told them that he and Leonard were leaving.

“We’ll see you later!” Jim promised them both, where McCoy just waved at M’Benga and said goodbye, hoping not to make Spock angry with his human customs again.

A few minutes of Jim’s sprinting later found them in one of the science labs Jim was required to visit every now and again to make sure every part of his ship was running efficiently. He put Leonard down on the edge of a lab surface and retrieved a small, fury animal from a glass habitat to hand to Leonard, who traded it for his teddy.

The boy held it in his arms with great care as its heartbeat skipped across the pads of his fingers and he was fascinated. He looked up at Jim excitedly and pulled the man’s free hand to the pulse point and watched to see the man’s reaction which was a feigned gasp of amazement, which Leonard seemed to see right though but appreciated anyway and took the tribble back into both of his arms. “She’s so soft, Jimmy. Can we keep her?”

“How do you know it’s a her?”

Leonard shrugged. “Just feels right. What shall we call her?”

“What do you want to call her?”

“How about… Jamie? You let me have her so I think that would be fair.”

“I guess you’re right. How about we go and show her to Spock?”

“No!” Leonard protested, holding Jamie to his chest protectively. “Why do you like him so much anyhow? He’s scary and mean!” The boy argued.

“He just doesn’t understand human behaviour.”

“Then why isn’t he around lots of Vulcans? Why do _you_ like him so much? Why do you want _me_ to like him?” Leonard asked, loosening his hold on Jaime so he didn’t accidentally hurt her.

“Because I’m the idiot that went and married him, so he’s important to me, and you’re important to me too. I’d very much like for you to like him.”

“Oh.” Leonard raised an eyebrow, and Jim saw the reflection of Leonard’s older self in the child. He was expecting some sort of argument on the subject from that look alone, but instead was met with the question, “can you take me back to Geoff now, please?”

“Sure thing.” Jim replied and picked Leonard up again before taking him down to Medbay and dropping him off into M’Benga’s arms.

“Back so soon, Leonard?” M'Benga asked while pulling out a small anti-bacterial wipe for the little bit of blood from Leonard's cheek. He then pulled out a plaster with space ships on it from the same pocket and stuck it over the little cut on the boy's cheek.

“Yeah. We got a little fluffy thing. Her name is Jamie.”

“What a charming name.” The Doctor said cheerfully.

“I thought so too.”

“Enjoyed yourself then?”

“Sorta. Turns out Jimmy was just usin’ me to make Spock happy, like Daddy does when he and Mama have an argument. I don’t much mind when its Daddy because I know he really loves me, see, cause he’s nice all the time, but Jimmy only seems to want me around when Spock’s there. Do you see what I’m sayin’ Doctor?”

Jim looked between the two as the Doctor gave a sad nod to the boy, and was almost outraged at the conclusion-drawing McCoy. “What are you talking about, Lenny? You know that’s not true.”

“It’s okay, Jimmy, I ain’t mad at you.” He said, in a resigned tone way beyond his years and Jim’s heart ached. “But Mr Scotty and Mr Geoff, see they ain’t got no one else, and they’ve been here from the start. When my Jimmy and Spock left, that’s when you came around and took me to the shaking space room and I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings but I like to play with people who want to play with me, not who want to impress somebody else.”

 _Sometimes I forget how stubbornly intelligent he is_ , Jim thought. “I want you to be happy as much as I want Spock to be happy, I’m not using you, I promise.”

Leonard shook his head and laid a comforting hand on Jim’s arm. “I’ll always have Jamie to remember you by.” Then he took his toy from Jim and nodded at M’Benga to take him away, at which the Doctor just chuckled.

“A bit dramatic don’t you think, Len? He’s just trying to be your friend."

“But I like _you_ more.” Leonard said, matter-of-factly. “Mama said lyin’ never did nobody any good.”

“What if I can get you on the phone with her?” Jim asked, almost desperate not to lose the favour of the little boy that was too wise for his age.

“Will that make you leave me alone?” Leonard asked, forgetting the manners his father instilled in him for just a minute out of frustration.

“It will.”

“Alright. One phone call, then I’m going to and staying with my Doctor, you hear?”

 “Loud and clear.”


	15. Phonecalls and Nightmares

“James, just what do you think you’re doing?”

The Captain smiled politely at the woman raising an eyebrow at him from the padd he was holding. “Mrs McCoy, I think there’s somebody on board you’ll want to see.”

Eleanora wanted to roll her eyes at Jim’s indirect way of speaking but refrained, hoping to spare her son-in-law’s feelings. “Well, get to it then, I ain’t got all day.” She encouraged, and Jim smiled at the familiar grumpiness. He simply handed the padd down to Leonard, who was sat cross-legged on the floor.

“Mama!” Leonard cried, making Jim flinch at the sudden outburst of excitement. He watched Eleanora’s expression change from confusion into the warmth and joy that only encased the woman when she saw her son. He was half-expecting her to deny what she was seeing, but it seemed that her mother’s intuition knew the truth already.

“Hello, baby, what’s happened to you?” She asked softly, and Leonard shrugged, then got up and climbed onto Jim’s knee so he could stand the padd up on Jim’s desk and get them both in the shot.

“I ain’t sure, but I’m all the way up in space by myself but I’m okay.” He gave his widest smile to convey that he was happy where he was, and Jim saw the woman melt with the current of emotion flooding her.

“I’m glad to know.”

Leonard looked down at the knitting in her hands and gave her an excited look that she had missed seeing in his young, innocent eyes. “Are you makin’ a scarf and gloves? I’d really like a new pair ‘cause I got a hole in the thumb of mine.” Leonard admitted behind the safety of the computer screen and Eleanora chuckled.

“I know you do honey that’s why I’m makin’ you some now.”

“Thank you very much!” Leonard said excitedly, and held out his hands in front of him, as if he could envision the new creations he would soon have and smiled to himself. Jim smiled warmly at the boy too, well aware that Leonard still treasured his mother’s knitted gifts to this day. Not that he’d ever wear one of her Christmas jumpers in public ever again after the amount of adorable comments he got at a party once, but to see him sat wearing one casually when he was off duty was not an unfamiliar thing. He’d even adopted the practice form his mother as he had grown and had knitted both Jim and Spock a beautifully patterned scarf respectively that they both loved. He was also still wont to wrap himself up in the blanket his mother had sent him, and Jim and Spock both thought it was perhaps the cutest thing their grumpy Doctor did.

“They all treating you right?” His mother asked, eyeing Jim with amusement.

“Scotty is the best! He helped me outta my hidin’ space when I ran away and he’s real nice, Mama, you’d like him.” The boy then poked his thumb over his shoulder to point at Jim. “And Jimmy’s been good to me too, but Mister Spock scares me a little.”

“Oh.” Eleanora let out a little chuckle. “Why are you scared of Mister Spock, Buttercup?”

Jim immediately banked the term of endearment for later as Leonard looked sheepishly up at his mother. “He’s big and strong and he never smiles… and he shouted at me for lettin’ him try my ice-cream! I was only tryin’ to be nice.”

“Lenny,” she said with a patient tone, “did you _offer_ him some, or did you shove it right in his mouth?” His shy and guilty glance downwards gave her the answer and she sighed. “We’ve talked about that before, haven’t we?”

“Yes, Mama. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me you should be apologising to.” Leonard nodded his head, twisting the soft fabric of his teddy in his hands nervously. The sight made Eleanora want to hug the boy despite his being in trouble, as it always had done. She didn’t need to, however, as Jim quickly gave the boy a hug of his own, gathering him to his chest and making Leonard smile. Eleanora smiled at them, knowing that no matter what her son did or the trouble he got himself into, Jim would have a soft spot for her boy. He was just as smitten with Leonard now as he had been on their wedding day and she was glad to see that.

“I’ll go tell him today.”

“That’s my good, brave boy.” Leonard blushed and smiled, leaning his arms on top of Jim’s.

“I ain’t as brave as Jimmy. He’s a Captain of a whole space ship! I can’t even look out the window without getting scared.” Leonard admitted, shrugging.

“And that’s what makes you even more brave!” Eleanora insisted. “Being brave ain’t about not being scared, Buttercup, its about facing up to what you’re scared of.” Her eyes moved up to Jim and she smiled. “The bravest thing your Jimmy has done in a long while is call his mother-in-law, but you Lenny,” she looked back at the boy with pride, “you’re all the way up in outer space, travelin’ with the stars. That’s brave to me.”

Leonard grinned. “Thank you, Mama.”

“You’re very welcome, Sweetheart.”

They talked about anything and everything for a little while, and was surprised to see that Eleanora listened attentively, no matter how little sense Leonard was speaking, and even managed to keep up with the changes in topic in a way Jim couldn’t hope to. Then, when he ran out of things to say, the boy decided it was time to say goodbye. “I best be going now.” Leonard said sadly. “I gotta say sorry to Mister Spock before he gets all sad.”

“Alright. Promise me you’ll call again soon, you drive your poor Mama crazy with worry!”

“I promise.” Leonard said sincerely.

“And you be good for Jim.”

“That’s what Scotty said too! I’m never bad!” Leonard complained, and his mother raised an eyebrow at the same time as Jim.

“Don’t you get that attitude with me, Mister. I’ll go get your Daddy if I have to.”

“No, no, I didn’t mean it Ma’am, I’m sorry. I’ll be good for Jimmy I promise! Okay, bye, miss you!” And then Leonard ended the call in fear of his father turning up and giving him a stern telling off.

Unbeknownst the boy, his mother simply rolled her eyes and chuckled as the last thing she saw of the call was her little son’s nervous face.

Jim, on the other hand, was less than pleased. “That was a little rude don’t you think? You begged for that call and you’re just going to end things like that?”

“She won’t mind, Jimmy. Do you want to take the beratin’ off my Daddy for me? Because if you do, I can bring her back?”

After having been on the receiving end of one of David McCoy’s angry rants, Jim was not particularly eager to repeat the experience. “Nah we’ll talk to her later.” He smiled at Leonard and stood up, hauling the boy up into his arms fully as he went. “Shall we go and see Spock, then?”

“Yeah.” Leonard agreed, and twiddled Jim’s uniform nervously until they reached the lift to the bridge, at which point Leonard looked up at him sheepishly and asked quietly, “does Spock hate me?”

“What?” Jim responded, incredulous. “Spock loves you!” He assured, seeing that Leonard was serious. “He loves you more than he loves anything. He didn’t mean to upset you, he’s just very wary of his feelings and he doesn’t want anyone to see that he feels things. It embarrasses him.”

“Oh. Why?”

“His people pretend not to feel so I guess it’s just the way he’s been brought up. The same as why you’re such a gentleman.”

Leonard nodded. “I think I get it now.”

When the doors to the lift opened, Leonard requested to be put down and as soon as his feet hit the ground he marched over to Spock and tugged on his trouser leg. When Spock went to speak, Leonard held up his hand to stop him, and Spock, after many years of getting used to the gesture, simply closed his mouth.

“I didn’t mean to shove ice-cream in your mouth. Well, I did, but I shouldn’t have because I should’ve asked first. I’m sorry.” He then put his hand down and waited for Spock’s response.

“I accept your apology, Leonard. I would also like to apologise to you for reacting too harshly to your mistake. You did not deserve to be berated with such force.”

“Aww that’s alright Spock! Say, can we be friends now?” Leonard asked hopefully and opened his arms to the rather confused Vulcan. He considered the proposal’s authenticity for a second, wondering if it was the cause of Eleanora McCoy’s influence or if Leonard genuinely trusted him enough to be his friend, but the look Leonard was giving him was not one of a liar, so he scooped the child up into his strong and steady arms and nodded his head.

“That is an agreeable term.”

“Good stuff.” Leonard agreed, then questioned, “how do you know my Mama anyways?”

Spock was shocked by the question, having never once mentioned Leonard’s mother, but the little boy just rolled his eyes the best he could and continued on. “You had the same look on your face just then that Jimmy had when they was talkin’ not long ago. It’s alright though, I’m a little frightened by her too sometimes.”

Spock felt that warm feeling grow inside of him that was only ever ignited by McCoy’s need to constantly check in on and care for his emotional state. Jim felt that warmth blossom across their bond and smiled, happy that his boys were getting along finally.

“Spock? Can we go do some experiments?” Leonard asked hopefully, and when Spock saw the look of excitement in his eyes he understood why so many willingly bent to his will. He looked to Jim for an answer to the question, and was returned a nod, along with the thought _he’s not going to be this small forever, Spock. We’ll have our McCoy back in a few days, so we might as well spoil him in his un-tainted youth while we can._ The Vulcan considered that and had to agree that it would be nice to treat the child who gave them his trust.

“Yes, we can. What would you like to do?”

“Well you’re the scientist Mister Spock. Surprise me!” The boy demanded playfully, tugging on Spock’s shirt to make him hurry along with his decision.

While Spock was busy trying not to drop McCoy, who was very eagerly telling him about the new cow his Mama had just managed to wrangle for the farm, Jim ran to the elevator and motioned for Spock to follow, which he did, and they were both soon in the science labs. They were about to fix up a reaction that Spock knew was safe for Leonard to observe when the boy suddenly had other plans.

“I’m tired.” McCoy admitted, rubbing his eyes with his balled up fist. It seemed that the day’s events had been trying on the little Doctor and he leaned against Spock’s chest, closing his eyes and snuffling.

“Shall we get you to a bed, Len?” Jim asked, and McCoy nodded without taking his head from Spock’s chest and Spock felt proud of himself for having gained McCoy’s trust so completely. It had hurt him immensely to see Leonard reject him, even as a child, but it appeared that in the end Leonard would always trust him.

By the time Spock and Jim got him back to their room he was snoring against Spock’s chest so Spock thought it safe to let the boy down but Jim shook his head vehemently when Leonard clutched at his blue uniform and whined. The action caused Spock to hold onto the boy tighter and when he moved to adjust his tiny body, the Doctor shifted and his head shifted Spock’s shirt at the collar, where Leonard’s head came into contact with the smallest bit of skin on Spock’s chest and the Vulcan was suddenly filled with anguish.

In his mind’s eye he saw his little Leonard sat in a room by himself with his teddy for company and nothing else, staring at a plain white door. “Are you coming back, Spock?” the boy asked quietly, with fear. “Please don’t leave me.” As he remained alone, the room grew darker and darker while the boy started to cry silent tears of fear. It got the point where he was no longer able to even see the boy when he noticed a few familiar glistening lights as stars and realised that Leonard’s room was in fact outer space, a place he felt insignificant and alone, especially without anyone to protect him, like he trusted Spock to do.

Spock also noticed that the constellations were different to any he had ever seen, which meant that Leonard’s mind was making up the things he was seeing which meant…oh. _Oh._ Lots of things suddenly clicked into place and Spock felt anguish flood him immediately and it was almost too much for him to bear. How had he not noticed this before? He had been in McCoy’s mind a hundred times and he had never realised that McCoy’s fear wasn’t an irrational one of space, but one of himself. McCoy was scared that he would be left in the solace of his own mind, and the way it was structured, so inexplicable, strange, out of order, constantly moving and changing, beautiful, and yet perfectly functioning… McCoy was subconsciously afraid of being left in space because he didn’t want to be alone. This fear had been constantly reinforced during his life, with the passing of his father, being abandoned by his wife and subsequently loosing his daughter, and even loosing Jim once. McCoy wasn’t terrified of the open darkness that was space, he was afraid of being alone in it. His heart ached for his husband and he couldn’t wait to have McCoy back so he could tell him, make him understand that he wasn’t alone. He would never be alone.

As he settled onto the couch, Leonard cradled against his chest as he shifted the fear out of his dream, and Jim returning back to duty on the bridge, he thought about how he would talk to Leonard about this when he was back…


	16. Peaches and Pecans

When Spock woke up, it was to the smell of strong coffee, sweet peaches and… pecans? He sat up slowly, realising that little Leonard was no longer settled against his chest and got up, looking around to find the boy only to have his eyes land on a very naked figure standing at the counter of the kitchen. “Hello?”

 “Mornin’, Darlin’.” Came a southern drawl that was recognisable to him, yet far more pronounced than he was used to. The naked man turned around and Spock realised that his front was covered by Leonard’s red and white polka dot apron, which made sense as it seemed that Leonard was the one wearing it. “Anyone ever tell you that you sleep like a rock?”

 Spock approached him cautiously and laid a hand on his bare shoulder, only to find that their bond was still not present, and he frowned in confusion. “You alright, Sweetheart? My ass has rendered a few speechless but it’s never tipped anyone over the age of sane. Why, I oughtta be flattered but I ain’t game for you wiggin’ out on me like this.”

Spock shook his head and looked at Leonard more closely, noticing a few key differences that he had skipped over in his excitement of having his bond mate back. The Doctor’s hair was slightly longer than usual and reached half way down his neck where it curled up to end the messy waves it was settled in. There were also no grey streaks that Spock was used to seeing and where Leonard was usually clean-shaven he had stubble that covered his sharp jawline. Despite having deep dimples on his cheeks and a few laughter lines, the Doctor also showed no sign of any other wrinkles and the almost always present bags on his eyes seemed non-existent. He was also a little less muscular than the Leonard he was used to, but his biceps still flexed in an attempt to impress Spock. “Listen, I’m gonna need you to stop lookin’ me up and down like I’m a prize stallion and tell me what the hell is happenin’. Guy like me wakin’ up naked with an alien like you? I’d say I had a hell of a night, and it wouldn’t be the first, but I’d still like to know.”

Spock blinked under the realisation that firstly, Leonard was still young, and secondly, he could feel the man’s arousal and amusement through the skin-on-skin contact that seemed to be deliberately making its way to the attention part of Spock’s brain. “How did you do that?” Spock asked, in an accusing tone as he snatched his hand back but Leonard just huffed a laugh and turned around.

“There ain’t a whole lot on Vulcan’s at the ol’ Georgia Library medicine section, but I do remember that y’all’re touch telepaths. Well, I ain’t all that fancy with my speech, but I hear I’m damn near a genius when it comes to making people feel things. Figures the best way to test that out…” He bent over while he retrieved whatever it was he was making from the oven, and Spock noticed a few faint scratch marks down Leonard’s back which made a tang of possessiveness flare in him that he felt Jim respond curiously to. “Was to test it out on someone who couldn’t even know what was comin’.” Spock simply stared at Leonard’s chest as he set his pie down on the kitchen table between them. When Leonard saw Spock’s stormy expression he raised his signature eyebrow and smiled. “What? Your Mama never told you it’s rude to stare?”

“She mentioned it a few times, yes.”

“Oh, good, so you ain’t brain damaged. That’s a load off my mind.” Leonard shook his head and used his oven gloves to take his pie off the tray and put it on a fancy, antique plate he had insisted keeping on display when he’d first moved into Jim’s quarters. Spock watched the movement then made eye-contact with Leonard again.

“How old are you?”

“Hey, never ask a lady her age.” He chuckled but when he was simply met with confusion he rolled his eyes and answered. “21. Just earned my god-given right to the whiskey I’ve been lendin’ from my Pa’s cabinet since I was 16.”

“That is a very young age to start drinking Leonard you should know-“

“I _do_ know you condescendin’ asshole. Anybody with sense knows alcohol ain’t good for you but that don’t stop it being so popular. I don’t suppose havin’ a 3 foot stick up your ass is good for your insides either but it ain’t stoppin’ you is it?”

Spock was about to respond to that absolutely nonsensical statement when the door to their quarters opened and Jim saw him then stopped in his tracks when he saw Leonard. In turn, the good Doctor gave Jim a flirtatious smirk as he looked him up and down and bit his lip. “Well, hello there soldier. You shacked up with pointy over here or…?”

“Bones?”

“Well I’ll be damned.” Leonard sighed and shook his head. “You suit each other. Both stupid as the day you were born.” Leonard walked over to Jim and tilted his head in confusion at the hopeful look on Jim’s face. “But at least yall’re pretty. I gotta admit though, I had no idea Mr Emotion over there had a boyfriend so you’ll be havin’ to forgive me for that one.”

“We did not consort in the way you believe, Leonard.” Spock supplied, and Leonard gave him a disbelieving and almost ashamed look.

“Well last I remember I was going home with a lovely lady at a bar and havin’ a damn good time. That last post-coital whiskey must have done me in for the night because next thing I know I’m wakin’ up buck ass naked in your lap thinkin, ‘boy, I gotta read the warnin’ label on my next glass because she sure ain’t as pretty in the light of day.’ What exactly else am I suppose to believe?” Jim suppressed a childish giggle at the pang of disappointment when Leonard said he wasn’t as pretty as the girl he’d been planning on taking home. Jim never thought he’d see the day that Spock would mourn over the loss of being called ‘pretty’ by Bones.

However, Jim was also immediately irrationally jealous of the woman Bones was talking about, especially when he got a flash of the lines in his husband’s shoulder blades when he turned to talk to Spock, who was also experiencing anger and jealousy when Jim’s thoughts attuned to his. It’s not like Bones had actually done anything, hell, he doesn’t even know them yet. Jim was just as bad in his youth for anonymous sexcapades, but he assumed that Leonard wouldn’t have been the type, what with how he acted when he grew up.

“You don’t strike me as the promiscuous type.” Jim blurted out.

“Aren’t you a charmer? You’ve really hit the jackpot here, Darlin’.” He directed at Spock then turned back to Jim, who was appreciating the look of his husband more up close, and found that Leonard was very handsome with stubble. “As for me, I usually ain’t. Don’t get me wrong crowds go wild for this southern charm, but I ain’t about to throw myself into any old bidder, I gotta see who wants it most, from there it’s just a matter of whether I wanna. You, on the other hand, strike me as the type to have whatever takes your fancy. Pretty boy like you gotta know the way you look, and everyone else knows it too.” Bones winked and Jim wanted to kiss him right then and there but felt it inappropriate. This was still not his Leonard. However, Jim could honestly see the appeal of his husband’s younger self in spirit, heart and looks, and wondered _how could Jocelyn possibly let you go?_

“You know Jocelyn?” Leonard asked, and Jim realised he’d thought out loud. After having years to have gotten used to voicing his thoughts in the privacy of the company of these two, he’d forgotten how to be tentative. He waited instinctively for Bones to brush off any talk of his ex-wife but was surprised to see a small, day-dreaming smile on McCoy’s face. “She’s _somethin’_ ain’t she? Boy, what I wouldn’t give to make her laugh. She ain’t all that nice to me yet, sure. Says I’m too stupid to ever be any sort of Doctor because I ain’t all that good at making people like me.” He shrugged, laughing it off, and Jim looked sad but also felt proud that despite everything Jocelyn had done to McCoy, she had not ruptured his dream of helping people and saving their lives, and that this would always be a present theme of Bones’ life. “But then, that ain’t the worst thing she’s said to me. This one time she told me I looked like a pathetic hobo with my stubble so I started shaving it, but she’s gone camping with her family for a few weeks so I guess I got lazy. She’ll be my girl someday, pretty boy.” He told Jim, very assured of himself.

Spock didn’t understand the attraction Leonard was feeling towards the woman when all he had to say about her was negative. He thought about how he had never seen Leonard with intentional stubble, even though the man clearly enjoyed having it, and felt a low growl try to escape his chest due to the sheer cruelness of this woman and the effect she had yet to have on McCoy. He wanted to tell McCoy to avoid her, to never let her destroy his confidence, to not listen to her, but he knew this would not change the actual past, and if the past did change, his Leonard might never have come aboard the Enterprise as a last resort after his divorce. The pain and manipulation Leonard had suffered made him the man he was today and Spock would not change him for the universe, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel protective of the young man in front of him.

“Is this really happening?” Jim asked and reached both arms out to squeeze Leonard’s biceps, who flexed them and grinned at the blonde.

“Looks like it, kid.”

“No… No! You can’t pull that on me, you’re the kid now!”

Leonard just smiled and raised an eyebrow and Jim could see why so many fell for his southern charm. “I don’t wanna argue but I also really _really_ wanna see your bad side.” He moved his strong, tanned arms up until his hands rested on Jim’s hips then pulled the other man forward quickly so they were flush together. Jim was getting lost in those cheeky hazel eyes when Leonard’s left hand wandered down his back and his cheeky grin matched his eyes. “Wouldn’t wanna come between you and your man though.” He then winked and let Jim go completely, moving to their bedroom and closing the door.

As soon as the door clicked closed Jim turned to Spock with a shell-shocked look on his face and Spock gave him much the same look in return. Both definitely felt unavoidably attracted to McCoy, and they both felt equally confused about what to do. There was also a very prominent undercurrent of protectiveness and amusement in their bond and neither truly had the words to describe what they were feeling at the time, and didn’t have the chance to make anything up either, because Leonard was stepping out of the bedroom after what felt like hours of the two men just stewing in their emotions. He came out of the room wearing, unbeknownst to him, Spock’s black under shirt, Jim’s trousers, and his own boots that Jim had never actually seen him wear before, with his sleeves rolled up and an expensive looking watch sitting on his wrist that Spock recognised as the one Leonard had been given by his ex-wife and had kept out of sentiment.

Leonard noticed Spock looking at the watch and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Yeah, I uh… I hope you don’t mind it’s just you weren’t wearing it and I’ve been wantin’ this model for a while now. Just lendin’ it that’s all I’ll give it back I promise.”

“It is yours.” Spock assured the man.

“Really? Well, thanks man.” Leonard smiled gleefully while Jim appreciated how the gold suited Leonard’s tanned skin. “Hey, uh, I left my ride back at the bar so you wouldn’t per chance be able to do me a solid and drop me off at the farm would you?”

Spock and Jim exchanged a glance before Jim answered. “That might take a while.” He then gestured to the large widow showing open space and Leonard looked at it for a few seconds before realisation dawned and he shot an accusing glare at the couple.

“You mean that ain’t a big, fancy TV? Well, we’re a fuckin’ long way from Kansas!” He shouted, and stepped back from the window while keeping a close eye on it, just in case. “How the fuck did I end up here? Have you two abducted me? My Pa always warned me against the likes of you, I just never figured traffickers would look so damn normal but you can never know, huh?” He immediately took on a defensive stance when Jim moved to physically reassure and calm him.

“Look, we didn’t kidnap you, and we sure as hell aren’t going to sell you off, alright? There was an issue with our transportation system and somehow you ended up on board our ship instead of your planet, alright?” Jim lied coolly, something Spock was both impressed and disappointed by.

“You can understand my hesitance, right?”

“Trust me, you’re not the first surprise visitor we’ve had so I understand how you’re feeling.”

Leonard narrowed his eyes at Jim for a second then shook his head. “No. Take me home.”

“No what, Leonard?” Spock asked, genuinely confused.

“I ain’t buyin’ what you’re sellin’. There’s not a chance in hell I’m in outer space - it’s impossible. Take me back home. Now.” He demanded, crossing his arms.

“If you require further proof, you are welcome to follow me.” Spock said, and walked calmly from the room. In response, Leonard gave Jim an incredulous look, but the blonde just shrugged and they both ended up following the Vulcan, with Leonard being too wary to walk too close to either man.

As they walked down the hallway, the three men received weird looks, the ones being directed at Leonard being particularly strange. He even got a few people daring to meet his eyes and then blushing when he caught them at it, which had him entering the lift with a smug smile.

They stood in silence as the lift went up, just standing within close proximity to each other, and Jim noticed for the first time that McCoy was about an inch taller than he was used to, and looked down to find that the boots he was wearing had a subtle platform that made him just a little bit taller and he sniggered. McCoy noticed and immediately shot a glare Jim’s way.

“Somethin’ to say, Pretty boy?”

“My name is Jim.” He sighed, realising just how he must seem to Bones all the time, then smiled. “And I was just admiring your inventive height enhancers.”

“No shame in bein’ small, Jim. My Pa’s just about the smallest man I ever met and you ain’t half the man he is even if you’re twice his height. Just so happened these boots fit my feet.”

Jim smiled inwardly at the fact that McCoy didn’t know they were his very own, then frowned when he thought that he probably bought them because someone knocked him down about his height. _Likely Jocelyn_ he heard across the bond and glanced at Spock to find that the Vulcan was more tightly wound than usual.

The doors opened to reveal the bridge before long and they all walked out, Jim and Spock to their stations while McCoy grabbed onto the nearest railing to keep him up. “Jim?” He squeaked, then coughed and repeated in a lower tone, “Jim? What the hell am I doing in space?” His grip on the metal bar in front of him tightened the longer he looked out at the star and swirling galaxies presented in the bridge view.

“I don’t know but you should be peachy by tomorrow. Think you can handle being up in the big bad dark that long?” The Captain teased.

McCoy let out a humourless laugh then took a deep breath and pushed himself from the railing and tried to focus on anything other than the wide window viewing what he believed would be the cause of his untimely death. This move led him to notice that everybody on the bridge was looking at him disbelievingly. “What? Never seen a Southern belle in space before?” The crew then smiled or chuckled at the grouchiness of him and mostly went back to their stations, a few sneaking glances every now and again.

McCoy almost felt nervous under the scrutiny, having become quite happily accustom to being known to everyone that he knew in his small town, until he saw a kind-looking woman at a flashing station and he forced himself to walk over, ignoring the fact that he was in space and pulled up a chair next to her, sitting on it backwards so he could rest his chin on his folded arms over the back in a comfortable position. “I’m Leonard McCoy, but most people call me Len. What would your name be?”

“Of no interest to you.” The woman replied, amusement clear in her voice.

“That’s a mouthful.” McCoy chuckled. “Your Mama must have had a lot on her mind when you were born.”

“What is your intent here, McCoy?” She asked, still focusing more on her console than him.

“Honestly, I just wanna get home and return that library book before sunset so than mean old lady behind the counter don’t tear me a new one. I went and made her a special Leonard McCoy classic peach and pecan pie, but sein’ as how I ain’t gonna be getting’ it back to her any time soon, I was wonderin’ if you’d like to come back to my room and try some? It might not be to your likin’ but I think I’ve got the right balance of fruit and sugar after so long of testin’ out recipes.”

The woman finally turned to him, and found amusement in his hazel eyes. “I don’t think that would be best, Mr McCoy.”

“Hey now, that’s alright, but you ought to give it a try first. I’ll just bring you a slice up later. Unless you’re allergic?”

“I’m not allergic, no.”

“Well then, I’d be honoured if you’d have a try.”

“I would love to.”

“I’m glad.” He smiled that charming he smile and she realised that all he was after was genuine praise of his cooking abilities and didn’t take her rejection for that of his affections but that of his baking prowess. She chuckled to herself.

“I’m Uhura.”

“Lovely name. Don’t find many Uhura’s in the south. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.” He put his hand out for her to shake and was pleasantly surprised when she took it and smiled at him. “I ain’t tryin’ to uh… you know um… I ain’t trying to do anything tricky here. I just want someone to talk to since those two idiots don’t have a single brain cell between ‘em.”

Uhura laughed and shook her head. “You’re not wrong there.”

“They sure are pretty, though.” He sighed and rested his head in his hand while he gazed at Spock and thought about his ethereal beauty.

“That’s all they’ve got going for them.” She said and McCoy nodded, shuffling his chair closer so they could talk more quietly as he turned his full attention to her, and she suddenly inexplicably felt like Leonard truly believed she was the most important person on the bridge, with those keen, warm eyes focused on her. She would have to ask him how to exude charm like that around Christine when he was back to normal. She had no idea the old Doctor was such a warm character in his youth. He wasn’t a bad man as he grew either, seeing as how he was her best friend, but it seemed that he had eased on the charm and if Uhura knew anything about these men, she knew it was because of Spock and Jim’s protectiveness of their Leonard.

“Personally,” he murmured, “I think the green one’s gone some smarts, but he’s got no emotional guidance, see.” They both turned to look at Spock, who was immediately caught staring at the pair and tried to avert his gaze quickly, keeping up his straight face. The pair chuckled then went back to talking. “And Jimmy? From all I’ve seen he’s great with people but don’t know how to deal with information all too quickly.” They stole a glance at Jim, who didn’t even pretend that he wasn’t watching the couple. When they locked eyes, Leonard blew him a kiss and Jim put it in his pocket with his hand while sending a wink back. Uhura rolled her eyes at that then heard a beep from her station.

“I’m sorry, Len.” She said, putting her hand on his arm. “But I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll talk to you later, okay? Over pie?”

Leonard grinned and nodded his head. “I’ll hold you to that, Miss Uhura.” He then took her hand and kissed it, causing her to shake her head while she pretended she wasn’t blushing. He then stood and surveyed his surroundings some more until his eyes landed on tight, blonde, curly hair. He jogged over to the small man at his station and ruffled his hand through his hair. “So, you’re about, what, 12? They steal you through their teleportation thingy too?” Chekov looked up at the young Doctor and smiled a flirtatious smile but before he got anything out, Jim responded instead.

“We didn’t steal you, Len.” Jim assured, smiling.

“Oh, I bet you say that to all the boys."

“Only the good looking ones.”

“What did we agree about flirting on the bridge?” Sulu warned, and Jim bowed his head.

“I apologise, Mister Sulu.”

“I don’t..” Leonard added with a cheeky wink to Jim. “We could be doing a whole lot worse.”

 _You have,_ Spock thought and Jim laughed. At the sound Leonard smiled warmly and walked over to Jim so he could sit down in his lap with his legs over the side of the chair. _We are_ , Jim thought back. Leonard, of course, couldn’t hear the exchange but gave Jim a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “I think my pie should have cooled down by now.” He thought out loud, then jumped up from Jim’s lap. “What do you say Miss Uhura? Fancy a quick look at what you’re gettin’ later?”

“I’d like that very much.”

“How did you get her name first try?” Jim complained, but Leonard just waved him off.

“It’ll even bring a smile to that gorgeously unmoving face of yours, Mr Spock.” Leonard said and Spock never responded, which Leonard just rolled his eyes, beginning to grasp what the people around him were like. “Like a marble work of art, Mr Spock. Like a great lady once said, you’re ‘built like a bust of Apollo.’” He then faced Spock and waited for a reaction his next words. “’Just remember, a statue is hollow.” Spock felt his cheeks heat slightly and Leonard turned around, seeing no need to flaunt his victory when it was in plain sight.

He jogged up the few step leading to the lift before a dizzy spell hit him and he had to stop and grip his head while the sounds around him started to melt into one and he felt his knees begin to weaken as he fell forward to the ground. The last thing he heard and seen was Jim rushing to his side before he blacked out completely.


	17. Pie

A few seconds later the bright lights of the bridge surrounded him once again and found himself being carried bridal style by Jim over to the lift. When that registered in his mind he struggled until he was loose of Jim’s hold and had his feet planted firmly on the floor again. Jim attempted to at least let Leonard lean against him but the young med student was having none of it.

“You need to go to Medbay.” Jim insisted, seemingly uncaring of the fact that Leonard had sprung back into motion. The concern was clear in his voice, but to Leonard it translated to pity, as usual.

“I don’t need to do a damn thing. I’m a Doctor, I know what I need and when. I just faint sometimes, it happens. Probably brought on this time by the shock from being propelled into space!”

“You are not a Doctor yet.” Came the voice of Spock, who Leonard could not for the life of him read the emotions of from tone alone. It made him panic on the inside, but he’d learned early on in life to supress that panic rather than let it out. Jocelyn reprimanded for it him constantly. _Emotional men aren’t attractive, Len._ He’d been trying to work on that one, but it seemed so hard to do.

“More so than you are, Elphaba.”

When McCoy turned his gaze to the Vulcan he was met with confusion, so he rolled his eyes. Jim would have laughed had he not been concerned for the state of his future husband.

“Your mental facilities also seem to be failing you.” Spock retorted. “A visit to medbay would surely-“

“Oh, come off it. I don’t need you and your boyfriend ganging up on me right now, alright? I’m goin’ to get my pie and if either of you follow me I’m filing a complaint.”

“To who, exactly?” Jim asked, exasperated.

“To whoever I can get in touch with and that’s a damned promise. Are you gonna respect that or are we gonna have a nice game of hide n’ seek on our hands?”

Leonard set his unwavering stare of determination against Jim’s until he conceded and let Leonard go to the lift by himself, grumbling the whole way. Jim had forgotten for a minute how closed off Leonard used to be about things that upset him before he met Jim at the academy. What used to take a bottle of whiskey took a few words and a kiss on the cheek to pry from his husband nowadays. It warmed Jim to know he had helped Leonard come so far, but hurt him to see that he was, as of yet, felling alone with his feelings.

As soon as the lift doors closed, Spock turned to Jim and raised an eyebrow and Jim just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. The absolute defeat with which they held themselves after loosing the argument with McCoy made Uhura chuckle and both men turned to look at her, Jim glaring and Spock questioning. “What?” The Captain demanded.

“You always tease him about being too old to keep up and now look at the both of you. Old or young you’re both so whipped.”

“I am _not_ whipped.” Kirk complained. “Spock, tell her we’re not whipped!”

“I am unfamiliar with the term, Captain, therefore I cannot give my opinion on the matter.”

Kirk looked between the two of them before throwing his hands up in frustration. “I hate it when you two do that. Spock, you can so guess from context so don’t give me that bullshit! If I was whipped I’d be in the next lift down and I’m right here so I’m not!”

“Are you still experiencing residual side effects of the de-ageing substance, Captain?”

“What?”

“He means you’re acting like a child.” Uhura supplied helpfully, making Kirk scowl.

“Whatever.” Kirk said and sat in his chair, ignoring the openly and slyly amused looks of Uhura and Spock respectively.

Meanwhile, Leonard walked out of the lift to the room he’d arrived there in with a spring in his step when he saw a very pretty blonde making her way the opposite to him. “Mornin’” He greeted her with a jolly nod, and she took a double take before stopping in her tracks and looking him up and down.

“Good morning.” She greeted back with a kind smile and he stopped opposite her, holding out his hand.

“Leonard McCoy, but most people just call me Len.”

“Janice Rand.”

“Nice to meet you, Jan. I was just goin’ to collect my baked goods if you wanna come with?”

“I’d love to but I have to get to the Captain-“

“Oh, Jim? Don’t you worry about him I’ll have a word later. Lovely lady like yourself shouldn’t have to cater to a little brat like Jim Kirk. How’d he rope you into the job, anyway? I bet it was the eyes.” Leonard chuckled and started heading his way again, leaving Janice no choice but to follow to continue their conversation.

“I’m just a yeoman, Len, it’s my job.”

“Now don’t you ever say that.” Leonard said seriously, and held his arm out for Janice to link hers through, which she did, curious as to how he was planning on filling out the conversation. “Don’t’ ever put _just_ in front of somethin’ you do. You ain’t _just_ a yeoman. You’re _Janice Rand_ and you ain’t defined by some stupid ‘just’ of a job. That’s a part of what you are, sure, but it ain’t a ‘just’ kinda deal.”

“Very poetic, Leonard.” She smiled, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“I suppose so.” They reached the door and Leonard tried to open it, only to find the thing locked. He groaned and turned an apologetic look to Janice. “Wouldn’t happen to know the way to get in, would you?”

“Unfortunately not, Len. Maybe we should go to the bridge and you can ask Jim-“

“I ain’t doing no such thing. Can’t go back after layin’ into him like that. Anyone you know good with computers or locks? Maybe we could hack our way in…”

“Well, we could try Mr Scott."

“Sure thing. Could you call him here for me, Darlin’?” Leonard asked, still looking at the door accusingly, as if he could open it with his mind alone. Janice chuckled to herself before doing exactly that and not too much later the engineer in question was with them, looking at Leonard in confusion.

“Doctor McCoy?” The engineer was met with a raised eyebrow.

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

“You just look familiar is all.” Scotty replied, his brain catching up with the situation. “Why do we need to be in here, exactly?” He moved to the door and inspected the console next to it, before typing in a few codes and having the door open before him easily.

“My pie is in there. Family secret. Can’t have that no good Captain and his alien lapdog stealin’ it.”

“Fair play to you lad. What kind of pie?” McCoy moved into the room and to the kitchen counter, gesturing for Janice to follow them in, since Scotty had already walked in with him.

“Peach and Pecan. Here, be the first to taste.” He cut the pie into even slices then handed one to Scotty in a napkin before moving to do the same for Janice, who accepted it politely and was already eager to taste because of the beautiful scent alone. This eagerness was increased tenfold when Scotty moaned around the piece in his mouth.

“I cannae believe you’ve been holding this back from me. How can I have lived this long without trying it? Well done, Len.” The Scot praised, shoving more into his mouth.

Janice took a small bite of hers and immediately understood Scotty’s compliments. Especially after so long eating synthesised food, a home-made southern comfort dish made by their very own Doctor McCoy was heaven on a plate, and she didn’t even know he could cook! “Len, that’s incredible!”

“Thank you Ma’am, and thank you Mr Scott! Why, I owe you a bottle of somethin’ for letting me in here but all of my best-aged whiskey is back on the farm. How about I cook you dinner tonight instead? These folks seem to have a lot of natural food in their rooms so I could just bring it over to yours and we’ll cook it. You come to, Jan, we’ll have a real good night.”

“Aye lad, that sounds good to me.”

“Same here.”

“Than it’s settled. I have to get this back to the bridge now, so do y’all fancy comin’ with me?” He held his left arm for Janice to take, then took Scotty’s in his right while the engineer held the pie in his other arm and they all walked to the bridge together, laughing and joking all the way until the doors opened and he was met with Jim’s glare, mainly directed at his new friends. “Well ain’t that just the sight. Whose rattled you this time, princess?” He asked the blonde while he let go of Scotty and Janice to get his pie back and offer a slice to Nyota, who took it with a small thank you. “If I didn’t see that band on your finger and think you was an honourable man I’d think you we’re jealous of the lovely Janice.”

“I’m not jealous of my yeoman.”

“No don’t-“ Leonard sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, then pointed an accusatory finger at Jim. “Don’t you do that.” He put his arm back down and walked over to Chekov and Sulu to give them some pie, giving Chekov an extra piece because the mother hen in him instantly thought the young man ought to have been eating more. “She’s got a name and I’d firmly appreciate it if you used it. You might be a Captain but that ain’t a free pass to bein’ a dick. I slept with pointy, that much is true, and I’m sorry for that, but it takes two to tango so don’t take it out on Jan when you’ve got me right here.” He walked over to Spock and gave him a slice, despite the look of despair on the Vulcan’s face. Or at least that’s what Leonard thought it was. “And you’ve got him right here too.” He wrapped the last bit delicately in a napkin and handed it to Jim with a charming smile that contradicted the seriousness of his tone.

“You’re right. I’m sorry Janice, my temper got the better of me.” Jim admitted, somewhat reluctantly.

Janice grinned and offered Leonard a thumbs-up. “Thank you, Jim.”

“That’s a start.” Leonard said, then leaned in to give Jim a quick kiss on the cheek, a risky move that paid off with a blush from Jim, who tried to hide it by turning his face and eating his pie. The moment the treat got in his mouth however, his head whipped back around and he glared at Leonard, who was taken back by the intensity of those eyes trained on him with wrath.

“This is incredible.” Jim said through a mouthful and Leonard released a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “I didn’t know you could cook so well.”

“I ain’t just a pretty face.” Leonard chuckled. “Glad you like it though. Joce thinks I over cook it every time but I like to think I’m addin’ a nice crunch to the pecans. Still, she insists on doin’ any cookin’ when we eat together, and she ain’t half bad, but she hasn’t got _my_ Mama’s recipes. God, my Mama hates Joce so much but I don’t know. She ain’t so bad once you get used to her.” Leonard shrugged his shoulders and smiled that day-dreaming smile he had done earlier, and Jim suddenly wanted to punch him but refrained. “We ain’t even datin’ yet and she’s still got me around her little finger. Bit like you and me, huh, Pretty Boy?” Leonard reached his thumb out and wiped a crumb from the corner of Jim’s mouth and pressed it to his own lips, grinning as he did so. Then he turned to Spock and noticed that the Vulcan’s pie was nowhere to be seen. “Ain’t been feeding the plant pots behind my back, have you Darlin’?” Spock gave him a confused head tilt and Leonard resisted the ‘aww’ that was threatening to break free. “Did you like the pie?”

“It was most satisfactory, Leonard.”

“Damn near hoovered it up, didn’t you?” Leonard smiled and skipped over to the other man, then brought their lips together so he could kiss him, and the surprise allowed for him to slip his tongue into the Vulcan’s mouth. When he was done, he pulled back with a satisfied expression. “Well, at least I know you’re not lyin’. You taste as good as the air on a fresh summer day, seen as how it’s always punctuated with Mama’s cookin’.” He turned back to Jim and found that jealous expression back in place from before and trotted back over to give the Captain the same treatment, making Spock thank any other-worldly power that could possibly exist that his Leonard had grown out of this extremely illogical phase, because he couldn’t for the life of him understand the motives of the fickle being kissing the Captain, but only knew he needed to protect him at all costs.

When Leonard was done with that he turned to Scotty and walked over to the lift with him. “We best be goin’ if I’m gonna get that dinner served up before it’s too late. I’ll see you later, everybody it was a pleasure.” He winked at Jim, who stood dumbfounded, just staring at where Leonard disappeared behind the lift doors, then turned o the rest of the crew.

“Did that actually just happen?” He brought his hand up to his lips and savoured the feeling of his lips tingling in the way they only ever did after being kissed by Bones, and realised that he hadn’t kissed his own Leonard for over a week now. The thought made him upset, and he felt Spock feel along their bond to reassure him that their Leonard would be back with them soon, grumpy as all hell and ready to punch anyone who brought up this incident in the future.

_I miss him. I know he’s here, but I miss him. I keep looking at his brilliant eyes and I see all that wonder and excitement and she’s going to take it all from him._

**_I, too, miss our Doctor, Jim. But, if she did not, he would never have found us and let him fix him._ **

_He doesn’t seem happy, Spock. He’s trying to pull himself fifty different ways at once and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it._

**_We must wait. It is difficult to see him struggling, yes, but it took years for us both to truly give his mind comfort. It disturbs me, too, to not understand his emotions at any given time._ **

Jim looked over to Spock and saw through their bond that Spock was thinking of all the times he had spoken to Leonard before they had been bonded and had hurt the man unintentionally by not being able to fully read the human’s wide range of emotions. “We’ll get him back soon.” Jim assured him, sending love and confidence across their bond. He wasn’t sure how Spock had turned their situation around but he was glad that he did, because Jim was no longer upset, and was simply prepared to wait for the man he loved.


	18. Shards

Jim and Spock had been sat up waiting for Leonard when the aforementioned man burst through the door with less finesse than the two men had seen him with for a while. As soon as his hazel eyes landed on Jim, his expression turned to mischievous and he smiled, flattening out his upturned collar as a plan unfolded itself in his head. “Who knew engineers were genius in _every_ department?” He drawled, waiting for Jim to react.

“What?”

“I think you know what I mean.” Leonard then ran his thumb along his bottom lip as if fixing lipstick like the women in the movies and he almost felt Jim’s anger from across the room.

“You fucking kissed Scotty?!” The Captain exploded angrily and jumped up to confront the Doctor.

“What if I did?” He challenged, biting his lip and stepping so him and the Captain were only an inch apart, that incredibly piercing gaze focused entirely on him. It was intoxicating.

“I’ll destroy him.”

Leonard pouted childishly in the face of Jim’s anger, which only fired the blonde up more. “Can’t you destroy me instead?” He then pulled Jim forward and into a searing and passionate kiss that had the Captain almost buckling at the knees, which made him grateful that one of Leonard’s arms was suddenly around his waist, holding him in place while Leonard licked his way into his mouth. It was only when Jim swallowed a low moan from the Doctor that he felt himself chasing McCoy’s lips at their sudden departure. He opened his eyes, forgetting he’d closed them, to see Spock holding McCoy by the scruff of his collar and glaring at him.

“Did you engage in intimate contact with Engineer Scott?”

He did not, but his rebellious mind didn’t want to give that up quiet yet. “If it gets me more of that blinding passion then hell yeah.” He agreed eagerly, trying unsuccessfully to move back towards the glassy-eyed Jim. The confidence the young doctor had continued to astound Spock.

“If you are lying, Leonard-“

“Are you jealous too, Puddin’? Don’t you worry there’s enough of me to go around.” He winked then gently wrapped his hand around Spock’s wrist and pressed his thumb on the pulse point just below his palm, a smug grin painting his face as Spock immediately let go of his collar and his eyes fluttered shut for a millisecond. He could see into Leonard’s mind and was immediately comforted by the familiar and open setting, though knew that this young and daring attitude would wither with his marriage. He also drew a large comfort from the fact that he knew Leonard was lying about having kissed anyone but Jim and him, and he was glad. “You like that, huh?” Spock noted the way the Doctor’s voice dropped an octave and knew what this would likely lead to if he didn’t put an immediate stop to it. He was just about to nerve pinch the man when Leonard’s finger travelled up his palm and kneaded the soft skin in the middle before teasingly brushing against his knuckles. The sensation didn’t last too long however, as Leonard let go of his hand and sauntered over to the kitchen counter, holding a bottle in his hand that neither had noticed before. “You have any coke in here?”

“Coke?” Jim repeated, coming out of his daze, then fetched a bottle of what Leonard wanted from the replicator. Leonard thanked him and Jim watched him pour an inch of whiskey into a glass with some ice and follow it up with coke, which surprised him, and it must have shown on his face because Leonard huffed a laugh.

“Vile tastin’ stuff. A man who drinks straight whiskey is a man who’s seen some shit.” He then raised the glass to his lips slowly and his mind whirred with glee when he saw Jim’s eyes trace his gulping adams apple.

 ** _Our Leonard drinks it unaccompanied by another beverage._** Jim heard across the bond, then felt and saw a flash of concern and confusion wind itself around the words.

_Yeah, well, our Leonard isn’t as ah… ‘innocent’ as this one._

**_I wish to take care of this Leonard, Jim. He must not be allowed to get hurt._ **

Jim turned to Spock and found him looking at Leonard longingly, and Jim knew he was wishing, once again, to take away all the pain their Leonard was to endure. _Now you stop that. He turned out just fine. Better than, especially with us around. He’s happy with us, and you know it. You can’t punish yourself for not preventing something you couldn’t._

**_Yes. He has reminded me of this often._ **

_Well then, start listening!_

“I don’t mean to interrupt whatever the hell _this_ is,” Len gestured between the two making intense, silent eye-contact, “but I need to know where I’m gonna be sleepin’ tonight. I would have stayed with Scotty, but I was afraid Princess Kirk here would have had a bitch fit.”

“You little son of a-“

“Gentlemen.” Spock interrupted, with a surprisingly patient tone. Jim was frowning and Leonard was wearing a shit-eating grin. “The logical solution here would be for Leonard to occupy the room of the currently absent CMO.” At that, Jim’s expression turned to disappointed but accepting, but Leonard’s face fell into just disappointment.

“Oh, I see, you flirt with one yeoman and you’re kicked to the curb like a rat.” Leonard complained. “I didn’t actually sleep with any of these people, nor did I kiss your engineer if you gotta know, but I can see where I ain’t wanted no more.” And with that Leonard picked up his glass and bottle and attempted to storm out of the room, before being grabbed around the bicep by Spock.

“That is not what I intended to convey. I simply assumed that your unfamiliarity with myself and the Captain would make sleeping in the same confined space an uncomfortable experience.”

“I’ve had worse.” McCoy challenged, still glaring at Spock. **_His temper is still present._**

_Is that a shimmer of amusement there, Spock?_

**_I am not sure to what you are referring._ **

_Figures._ Jim huffed a laugh and let it go, regretting the sound as Leonard’s death glare switched to him.

“What’re you laughin’ at? I’ll take you both on bare fisted if I have to.”

Kirk held up his hands in surrender and stepped towards Leonard as a zoo trainer would a spooked animal. “I’m sure you would, Len. I wasn’t mocking you, I swear, scouts honour.” He then put one of his hands over his heart and McCoy looked over him warily, but otherwise turned his attention back to Spock.

“Let go of me.” He flicked his eyes to where Spock’s grip was almost bruisingly tight around his arm and the Vulcan let go immediately.

 _Boy, you’re really in trouble here._ Jim thought at Spock, with amusement lacing through his words.

**_He is being difficult._ **

_Would you have him any other way?_

Spock ignored Jim in favour of trying to placate Leonard. “I apologise. I did not intend to upset you.”

“Yeah seems to be a pattern. You know, careless ignorance is just as cruel as bein’ outwardly mean. Didn’t your Mama teach you anythin’?” Leonard grouched, still a little stung from the rejection of the Vulcan. It wasn’t the first time he had been used for a one-night stand, but experience in the field didn’t make it any better. Worse, in fact.

“Do not speak of my mother when yours is clearly responsible for your issues regarding your inability to properly control your anger.” Spock defended, and was greeted not only with stunned silence from Leonard but also radio silence from Jim in their bond. At least before McCoy pulled his fist back and got a swift punch to the nose in before Jim rushed to keep him restrained from hitting Spock again. The Vulcan had stumbled back from a combination of the force of the hit, the surprise, and the onslaught of emotion behind it upon the skin-contact. It seemed that in that moment, Leonard was angrier and more hatful toward Spock than he ever had known the human to be.

“Bones, calm down!” Jim shouted.

“Nobody talks like that about a man’s mother! Nobody!”

“He didn’t mean-"

“Don’t fuckin’ defend the little bastard, Jim, you heard him and he ain’t gettin’ away with it!”

Jim was trying to keep the Doctor in his arms, not noticing the bottle of whiskey smashing as Leonard tried to struggle his way out of Jim’s grip, and would have been successful had Jim not slipped on the whiskey and brought McCoy down with him. Jim then heard a scream of pain and looked at Leonard’s leg in horror as blood seeped out a large gash that a shard of glass was sticking out of.

“Fuck!” Leonard shouted, then got himself up, struggling the entire away and pushing Jim and Spock away. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” He tried stepping forward but his leg almost buckled and he took a moment to compose himself before stepping ramrod straight and holding his breath and he stepped away from the pair trying to fuss over him, slipping slightly on the blood pooling steadily on the floor. The pained groan he hissed out through clenched teeth had Spock barrelling into over-protective mode before he could blink and he was suddenly carrying Leonard bridal-style over to the door while the young Doctor pushed at him and whined, ignoring his own bloodied, and likely broken, nose. “Put me the fuck down right now!”

“I will not. If I were to put you down, it would increase your pain and this is not something I will allow.”

“Oh, I forgot you were all about being a loving, caring Vulcan towards me.” Leonard grouched sarcastically, and Spock could feel the young man’s self-hatred slowly dwindling in the back of his mind. It was not as strong as it had been when Spock had first delved into Leonard’s mind, but it was there nonetheless, and was slowly feeding into Leonard’s fear of being unloved and alone, even if he didn’t know it yet.

“I do care, Leonard.” Spock said sincerely, putting aside their argument for the time being. “When I suggested you move to another room it was for the benefit of your physical and mental comfort. It was not born from a desire for myself and Jim to sleep absent your presence.”

“Stop it. You’ve known me a day you couldn’t possibly like me all that much. Besides, once this glass is out of my leg and I don’t need you to carry me, we’re going back to you callin’ my Mama. I may be many things but I ain’t a coward and I’ll be damned if I let any man disrespect the woman that put her life and soul into raisin’ me.” Leonard assured with conviction, and Spock was extremely tempted to roll his eyes but refrained.

“I would not have said anything if you had not also insinuated my own mother had somehow missed something out in her raising of me. Nevertheless, I apologise.”

“I’m sorry too, but two wrongs don’t make a right and I still ain’t happy about you twistin’ everything to make it sound worse than it is. If you weren’t so damn cryptic we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I think you will find-“

“Can this not wait?” Jim asked, shaking his head with fond amusement while McCoy laughed at him.

“Ladies don’t start fights, but they can finish them.” He pointed at Jim and the Captain actually rolled his eyes. Leonard soon retracted his hand, however, when he was placed down on a bed in medbay, and was surprised he had gotten there so fast, having been more aware of his injury and the distractions set upon him by Spock and Jim than his surroundings. He groaned at the shocked look on the nurse’s face when she walked over to them and looked down at his leg, then back to his face, as if unsure of what to say. “Oh god.” He groaned. “You’re not gonna cut off my leg are you? They already call me lefty at med school because of my scalpel hand they don’t need another reason!” He grabbed onto Jim’s uniform dramatically. “Would you put your life into the hands of a one-legged surgeon? I’m gonna look like John Silver in that old movie.”

“Bones. Come on. You’re fine it’s just a scratch.”

Leonard carried on as if he hadn’t heard Jim. “Dear Lord, forgive me for my past sins and accept me into thy light.” He looked over to see the look on Spock’s face and felt a mild victory at seeing the look of utter confusion on the Vulcan’s face. He then looked to Jim and made a motion that suggested his dramatics were going right over Spock’s head.

“You get used to that.” Jim sighed.

Leonard turned his attention back to the nurse then, abandoning his effort of getting anything from Spock. “Sorry about my ramblin’, Darlin’, it just hurts is all. Better to have a rambler than to screamer I find.”

“It’s absolutely no problem, Leonard.”

“I didn’t catch your name there.”

“Christine.”

“Classy.” Leonard nodded in approval. It was then that M’Benga also came to see what the previous commotion had been about. He looked at Leonard with a stunned face, and the Southern man simply winked back, his flirtatious grin back in place. “And what’s your name, puddin’?”

“Geoffrey M’Benga.”

“Now that’s a mouthful. I’m just gonna call you Geoff if that’s alright?”

“That’s fine.” The Doctor nodded and then room feel silent for a little while before Leonard winced as his leg shifted and turned his gaze to Christine.

“There anything you can do for me here, Chris?”

“I can get the dermal-“

“No. None of that fancy space bullshit I’ll take anaesthetic and plain old stitches over space tech any day.”

Christine looked pained at the admission, and was a little shocked that McCoy wanted a less than simple option, considering how he grouched about old methods. “That would not be the best course of action to take under the circumstances. It would provide a lot more pain than is strictly necessary.”

“It’s tried and trusted and I know it better than I know you people. There’s regenerators at home, of course, but I’m not likely to put the fate of my beloved leg in the hands of a machine that’s on the same ship that _accidently_ picked me up from Earth and dropped me in the middle of space. That ain’t the most competent of modern technologies so you’ll forgive me if I don’t want your other-worldy things patchin’ me up."

“That is a rather logical reason.” Spock admitted, a surprise leaking through his tone that was only detectable to Jim and Leonard.

“Can it Green, I ain’t got time for another argument right now.” Leonard complained, looking pleadingly at the nurse.

“We have that equipment on board in case of an emergency, so it is possible. Are you sure?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Chapel gave him an unsure nod and went to fetch everything while M’Benga laid Leonard down on the bed.

“Captain, Mr Spock, if you could please wait outside.” M’Benga insisted, to which Jim nodded, but Spock stayed put.

“As it was my fault that Leonard was injured, I would prefer to be absolutely certain he is tended to correctly.”

M’Benga looked he was going to refute before Leonard beat him to it. “Hey now, it wasn’t your fault. Accidents happen.” He reached out his hand, and Spock automatically took the Doctor’s hand into his own and was greeted with waves of reassurance that Leonard was all right. “You go on outside and wait for me, okay? I’ll be just fine.” Spock nodded and let himself be taken to a chair outside of the operating room by Jim.

“See, he’s still our Bones.” Jim assured while they sat.

“Indeed.”

Jim sighed and tipped Spock’s face so they were looking into each other’s eyes. “You know what he’d say right now don’t you?” Spock just looked blankly back at Jim and the man tried not to let his exasperation leak into their bond. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. He’s fine and is going to continue to be fine so don’t bother worrying yourself sick.”

“It is difficult not to be concerned when either of you are injured. Both of you have a tendancy to get into overly troublesome situations.”

“You saying we’re irresponsible? If Bones heard that he’d tear you a new one.”

“A new what?”

“Forget it. Just… stop worrying, alright?”

“If you insist.” Spock answered, and turned his head so he was staring at the blank medbay wall, and Jim felt Spock try to conceal his concern, though Jim already knew it was there and could tell when Spock was concealing an emotion, oppose to not feeling it at all. He took Spock’s hand and tried to remedy his guilt and concern with strong feelings of calm and love, but knew that Leonard was usually better at emotional comfort than either of them. But, for now, it was going to have to do.


	19. Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been away for so long Ive been working full time for a while because Im literally broke but I hope this chapter is okay for you guys :)

As M’Benga finished up stitching and wiping the wound down with an antiseptic and a numbing cream, McCoy started shuffling impatiently. “Does anyone on this godforsaken death-trap have a good, old-fashioned, _human_ mobile phone?”

M’Benga gave a throaty chuckle and answered McCoy. “There’s one in the CMO’s office. He’s sentimental like that.”

“Hey, nothing wrong with being in touch with your history! Our great great granddaddy’s got by just fine with ‘em and I intend to carry on tradition as taught. Now, where can I find this ‘CMO’?” Leonard swung his lower body around so his legs were hanging off the medical table, and pretended his new stitch was no bother to him at all.

“Well, at the moment you’re in the presence of the member of staff in charge of this place, so I will get it for you on his behalf, if you promise not to damage that leg any further and I mean it!” M’Benga made McCoy nod in slight discontent before he made his way to Leonard’s office, where M’Benga had entry to all of Leonard’s locked up spaces, due to the trust his friend had instilled in him, that he vowed to treasure forever.

At the sound of that familiarly miserable southern drawl, Jim warily entered the room again, with Spock following, rather uncharacteristically, slowly behind. “Hey, Bones- ah Len! See you’re already feeling better about that big ‘ol shard in your leg, huh? You alright?”

Leonard looked up and rolled his eyes at Jim, then noticed Spock behind him and just huffed and nodded in lieu of a response.

“Listen, you’re gonna have to talk to us sometime. He’s very sorry for what he said and you know that, don’t you?”

Leonard rolled his eyes and got up from the table, wincing slightly as his thigh muscle contracted and his stitch stung. Jim made a move to help but stopped Leonard’s glare. “I’m doin’ just fine James, don’t you go tryin’ to mend a sandcastle you ain’t even kicked because very single damn grain of this mess is on his hands and mine.” His eyes flicked to Spock on the ‘his’.

Spock was about to respond when M’Benga came out of the office and rushed to McCoy, making him sit back down on the bed. “What did I just say?”

“Wasn’t my fault, Doc!” McCoy held up his hands and tilted his head to the two next to him, and then thanked M’Benga when the phone he’d requested was placed in his hand.

“Who are you calling on that thing?” Jim asked, genuinely confused. “I doubt anyone else even has one of those anymore, especially right now.. Look, Leonard, there’s something you need to know-“

“Dammit Jimmy, I’ve known this woman my whole life, she’s just about my whole world and I know that stubborn angel would sooner jump in front of a car than trust all this modern technology.” Leonard said all this as he dialled then put the phone to his ear and waited for a little while before he put it back down, disappointed. “She always answers first time. Always. Must be something about time zones, being in space and all.” He has no idea how right he is, Spock heard Jim’s amused voice through the bond. “You gotta get me home, Jim. She has to know I love her. What if I never get home next time something like this happens? I tell you boys, next time I see her I’m straight down on one knee and I’m sayin’ ‘Jocelyn, you’re the one pain in the ass that makes my sad life bearable and I can’t imagine life or joy without you there by my side. Will you marry me? And the bells will be ringin’ and-“

Spock felt the urgent need to interrupt when Jim had the mental image of punching the closest person to him, which would have benefitted Spock the absolute least. “Leonard you must believe we are doing all in our power to get you home but you must be patient.”

“Well how could I expect you to understand something like love?”

Spock was taken aback, unable to understand the source of this aggression and was almost overcome by the hurt the statement had caused. As soon as Jim felt it, he hitched a breath. The kind of hitch he usually reserved for his dramatics, but not this time. He just hoped his Leonard grew up, and fast.

Leonard saw the hurt in both men’s faces and not for the first time in their presence, felt left out of the whole interaction. It was unusual for Leonard to feel this way around people, having grown up in a talkative community. He’d had more connection with patients he’d spent one hour with than these two. No matter how hard he tried, or whatever he did, these two were always hiding something from him, refusing to talk to him like they talked to the other people on board. It made Leonard feel as if he was having to deal with those mean kids at school again. The ones that made everyone think he was weird for being smart and a little bit scared of technology. They treated him like an idiot, as if he was in the wrong for being confused about being suddenly transported to space.

“Okay that was rude, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need you two to back off a little, okay? I’m fine and I’m gonna be fine so long as you let me be. Please take me back home. I won’t press any charges or nothin’ I really ain’t that mad. A good story for the grandkids if anything.” With his anger diminished and his desire to be home growing stronger, McCoy stood up and limped slightly to the other two men. “I’m gonna be a real-life Doctor soon. None of that shadowing business, really! I’ll be saving lives!” He said it with such a genuine love for the profession that Jim and Spock felt themselves smiling with him, seeing a hint of their own doctor. “I can’t do that if y’all keep me locked up here, now can I?” With his point made, he started limping off, before being handed a pair of crutches by Chapel on the way out, which he used with an ease that concerned the group, all of them having assumed McCoy had always been too sensible to have managed to hurt himself before.

Spock and Jim followed as the Doctor made his way through the corridors, having no idea where was going until eventually he asked where he could get a coffee and Spock led the way to the cafeteria, hoping he could at least help his mate in this small way. When they were all sat at table, McCoy on one side and Spock and Jim on the other, Spock warily asked McCoy a question, to break the ice, as Jim would say. “Leonard, do you know anything of Star Fleet?”

“Heard of it.” Came the reply through a mouthful of plain, black coffee, the likes of which Jim detested but loved the smell of thanks to McCoy. “Big organisation that shoots innocent people in to space on ‘missions’ or something like that. I’m guessing that this is one of those?”

“Indeed.” Replied Spock, unused to making conversation purely for the reason of filling up time. He gently nudged Jim in the hopes that the Captain would his talkative self would take over and stop staring at Leonard’s facial hair while his thoughts of finding it ‘pretty’ were drifting through the bond.

“Oh.” Jim sat up suddenly ram-rod straight and nodded. “Sure is! Best ship in the whole fleet too. Not to mention the best crew.” An idea popped into Jim’s head then, and he leaned further towards Leonard. “I need to show you something I think you’ll like. To take your mind off being in space for a little while. How about that?”

McCoy’s answering smile was somewhat mischievous. “I’m flattered Jimmy but I really don’t think that’s gonna work right now. Maybe another time. How’s about you write down a mode of contact and maybe…” He trailed off, shrugging and Jim just stared at him with a delighted and surprised look on his face.

“That is so not what I meant you absolute- look, whatever, I’m not doing to do… that, okay? Just trust me I think you’ll like it.”

McCoy just rolled his eyes and finished off his coffee. “Well, there’s not much else to do around here but wallow for me, I guess. What the hell, I’m up for a little distraction. Lead the way, Sir.”

“What is this place?” McCoy was almost certain he was in his old back yard at home. But there was something different. The peach trees were there, half full, with soft, fresh fruit littering the ground around it. The sky was cloudy but not overcast, and he could smell the bakery down the street as the scent was carried on a soft breeze.

“Simulation room. Its mostly used to test out difficult situations to see how ensigns react and take control, but it can used for other things too. Its all real though. This is your home right now.” Jim smiled as Leonard ran his fingers through the shrubbery that lined the garden and picked a white rose from his mother’s show-off section.

McCoy then turned and smiled a the other two. “This is quite extraordinary, you know? Real sweet that you would do all this for some random guy that happened upon your ship. How did you know this is where I lived?”

“we had to check your medical records that showed up when you had to get stitches, that’s all. Home address included.”

“Oh.” McCoy looked down then back up at the sound of the back door opening with the familiar creak it always had to reveal a little girl running out, with the same eyes and hair colour of McCoy himself.

“Daddy?” She shouted excitedly, and ran towards the confused doctor, who didn’t know how to respond to the kid wrapping herself around his legs and squeezing him tightly, as if he would disappear any moment.

“Shit.” Jim whispered, and Spock looked equally concerned as they ran over to the controls to try and stop the simulation, having only put in the date and forgone the time by accident. Meanwhile, McCoy tapped the little girl’s shoulder and she stepped back enough for him to be able to kneel down at her height.

“And what’s your name little Darlin’?”

The girl giggled and shook her head. “Don’t be silly! You know my name, I’ve always been called Joanne after all!”

McCoy nodded and fell back as Joanne launched herself at him in another hug, and he laughed as fell, even though he was very confused. The girl picked herself up, however, at the sound of her mother calling her as she came down the steps at the back of the house. When McCoy looked up, his heart stopped, and he grinned wildly, jumping up and jogging to Jocelyn all cool and calm and receiving a more than normal hateful glare in response. “Joce? How’s things? Looking sweet as pie as always.” Even if it’s a simulation, there’s no reason to be anything but kind to the love of his life, he thought. This is gonna happen some day if it already hadn’t, if what Jim said was true so it could be good practise.

“What are you talking about Leonard? You haven’t spoken like that in years.”

Leonard made a confused face and huffed out a laugh. “What are you on about, Darlin’?"

“Please stop. Your embarrassing yourself. We’ve been divorced 3 years, Len. It’s pathetic displays like this make me wonder why I ever married you in the first place.”

“Woah hold up now, we ain’t even married yet is this some kind of joke?”  McCoy asked with nervous laughter in the face of Jocelyn’s harshness. “I love you, Joce.”

“I’ve never loved anyone less.” The cold, hard tone was something that sliced through McCoy like a knife and Jim was frantically trying to stop if happening, pushing buttons and looking for a way to cut it off. “You’ve got your daughter for exactly two days and not a second longer, no matter how much she cries. I’ll see you then McCoy.” And then she was gone and Joanna was playing happily with the peaches, trying to juggle, while Leonard felt his heart tearing in two as the whole scene dissolved around him and he stood in silence for a second. 

As soon as Jim made a noise of empathy, McCoy burst out of his daze and forced himself to run out the room. He didn’t know where he was going, but he needed to be alone. Like he guessed he was destined to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you're enjoying it so far :)


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